960404

1,049 candidates

in one Indian

constituency

NEW DELHI: A staggering 1,049 people are in the fray in a single constituency in legislative elections in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, putting officials in a fix, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Pioneer quoted a local election official, K. Chandrachoodan, as saying that his office "would be forced to print ballot booklets instead of ballot papers" for voters.

The daily said a large number of farmers, angry over non-implementation of an irrigation scheme in the region, filed nominations Wednesday to deliberately create obstacles on holding of elections in the constituency.

Indian ballot papers are often the size of a newspaper page, but no single constituency has ever had more than 1,000 contestants. The Pioneer said many of the farmers could withdraw from the fray by Saturday.-AFP