Chennai: Over 6,400 nominations have been filed in Tamil Nadu, which is heading for a five-cornered contest in the April 6 Assembly elections. The State has 234 constituencies. The last date for filing nominations ended on Friday and scrutiny of papers would be taken up on Saturday, while March 22 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.
“The final number of contestants would come down as political parties would have fielded dummy candidates as well. The dummy candidates – who are backup nominees - would withdraw their papers if the nominations of the main candidate are in order. Also candidates file more than one set of nominations,” pointed out an official of the Election Commission of India.
The ruling AIADMK is in alliance with the BJP, PMK, TMC and smaller parties, while the DMK-led front has the Congress, MDMK, VCK, CPI, CPI (M), IUML, MMK and other outfits. Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam is heading a front of smaller parties, and TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK has tied up with actor Vijayakant’s DMDK and Owaisi’s AIMIM and SDPI. Film director Seeman, who heads the Naam Tamilar Katchi, has fielded candidates in all 234 constituencies and half of them are women.
The Karur Assembly seat, which is witnessing a high profile clash between Transport Minister MR Vijayabaskar and former Transport Minister Senthil Balaji, is among the constituencies with a high number of nominations. As many as 88 nomination papers have been received in the seat.
While DMK president M K Stalin’s Kolathur seat has got 55 nominations, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s Edappadi constituency has received 25 nominations.
