Filing of nominations closes for Tamil Nadu polls

The filing of nominations for the April 6 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu ended on Friday with over 6,300 candidates filing applications to contest from 234 constituencies

. As many as 6,357 candidates, including 5,398 men, 956 women and three transpersons, filed their nominations to contest the polls, as per data hosted on the official website of the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu at 9.40 pm on Friday and the final tally may increase. AIADMK top leaders Chief Minister K Palaniswami (Edappadi), Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (Bodinayakkannur) have already filed their nominations.

DMK President M K Stalin (Kolathur), DMK youth wing leader Udhayanidhi Stalin (Triplicane-Chepauk), Makkal Needhi Maiam President Kamal Haasan (Coimbatore-South) are among the star candidates.

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BJP state unit Chief L Murugan and actor-politician, Khushbu Sundar (BJP-Thousand Lights) are the other prominent candidates who have filed their nominations. While the AIADMK is eyeing a straight third term in office, the DMK is leaving no stone unturned to return to power after a 10-year hiatus.

The BJP and PMK are AIADMK's key allies while Congress, CPI(M), CPI and VCK are among the constituents of the DMK.

Karur segment witnessed the highest of 90 nominations and constituencies of Ranipet and Cheyyur, the lowest with eight nominations.

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The submission of nominations to contest from Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency, where bypoll has also been scheduled on April 6, as many as 19 nominations were received. In Kanyakumari applications were received including that of nominations of Congress party's Vijayakumar V alias Vijay Vasanth and BJP's Pon Radhakrishnan.

Nominations will be scrutinised on March 20 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 22.

Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, Satyabrata Sahoo said over 2,44,000 forms have been received, seeking to utilise the postal ballot option and this includes 1,59,849 applications from people aged 80 and above.

Police and polling personnel, persons with disabilities, senior citizens aged 80 and above, people affected by Covid-19 and those in essential services are the category of people who could choose the postal ballot option.