Karunakaran’s daughter to contest polls

The Congress seems to have evened out the numbers in its Kerala unit, splitting the state’s seats between the K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony factions in its latest list. Karunakaran’s daughter Padmaja Venugopal finds a place along with senior leader Pranab Mukherjee and actress Moushumi Chatterjee in the list released on Wednesday.

Mukherjee will contest from Jangipur while Chatterjee has been nominated from Calcutta North-east. While Padmaja will fight from Mukundapuram, V. Balaram gets Calicut.

Former minister Subodh Kant Sahay has been fielded from Ranchi in Jharkhand.

The other candidates whose names have been cleared are Dawa Nargula (Darjeeling), Nirpen Hawala Dar (Nabadwip), Syed Mohammad Nizamuddin Ali (Basirhat), Prof Manoranjan Haldar (Mathurapur), Prof Om Prakash Mishra (Jadavpur), Tapas Mazumdar (Dum Dum), Khitindra Mohan Sahu (Contai) and Tapas Bannerjee (Asansol).