Mangalore : Three Congressmen have filed their nominations for the March 9 primary to choose the Lok Sabha candidate.

In addition to party veteran and former Union Minister B. Janardhana Poojary and CEO and founder of NGO MokshaYun Access Harsha Moily, who is the son of Union Minister M. Veerappa Moily, businessman and State vice president of party’s Minority Cell U. Kanachur Monu, too, has filed the nomination papers, which were found to be in order. Party leader P.V. Mohan, who was tipped to contest, said he had decided to support Mr. Poojary after a meeting with his supporters.

Mr. Poojary said the Congressmen should cast their votes in the primary thoughtfully. Mr. Moily dismissed the allegation that he was not much known to party workers, saying he had been attending party meetings for the last four months and talking to people. He said the Yettinahole project posed no problem to the coastal region and it should not be politicised.

The final list of voters will be announced on March 2, when the candidates will be allotted symbols, the party sources said. Meanwhile the party observers have received objections to 10 persons listed as voters, it is learnt.

“It is nice” was how Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mohammed Ameen reacted to the rejection of his application for enrolling as voter for the Congress Primary. He said a couple of Congress workers had come to him and taken his application. He said the primary was an internal exercise and there was no need for outsiders to be part of it. He would not pursue his application any further.

The former Mayor K. Ashraf said his application, too, was taken from his home, though he had quit the Congress.

Out of the 1,071 applications, Congress observers rejected 454 applications, saying they had not met the 19 criteria decided by the party high command. Thus, two out of every five applications have been rejected.