Thiruvananthapuram: Over 10,000 Kerala people working in the Gulf nations have arrived in state over the last two weeks, some of them by chartered flights, to cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections that will be held on April 26.

According to Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Abdurhiman Randathani, the party's expatriate charity and volunteer organisation for Muslims, KMCC, worked hard to motivate the Malayalees working in Arab countries to come to Kerala and vote ever since the elections were announced.

The Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) has a wide network in the Arab nations, he added.

With the help of the KMCC, the expatriates negotiated with airlines for low cost fares and chartered flights to come to Kerala in large numbers, he said.

"Over 10,000 Keralites have arrived in the state in the past two weeks. More are expected to arrive on April 25," Randathani told PTI.

"However, there is nothing new about it. This happened during the last Lok Sabha polls also," he added. PTI