As 22 of the 49 nominations filed for the Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency were dismissed on various grounds during the scrutiny conducted on Wednesday, 27 candidates are in the fray as of now.
This number of expected to go down further as a few of the 27 candidates are likely to withdraw their nominations on Thursday.
With Returning Officer and Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish in chair, candidates of the political parties and the independents participated in the scrutiny of nominations that went on smoothly till 12.50 p.m.
In Tenkasi (Reserved) constituency, 10 of the 36 nominations were dismissed to take the number of candidates in fray as of now to 26.
Even though some of the candidates withdraw their nomination on Thursday, the Election Commission may be forced to use two electronic voting machines in both the segments as each EVM can accommodate the names and the symbols of only 15 candidates and NOTA (None Of The Above).
In neighbouring Kanniyakumari, 14 of 30 nominations filed by 24 candidates were dismissed during the scrutiny that left 16 in the fray as of now.