Stealing a march over Opposition parties, ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu today released its list of candidates for the posts of 919 councillors and 655 ward members in 12 corporations and 31 district panchayats respectively for the two-phased civic polls scheduled next month.
On the opening day of filing nominations today, AIADMK named candidates for all the total 919 councillor posts in the 12 municipal corporations of Tamil Nadu, which will witness indirect election to the posts of heads and deputies of the local bodies, including that of Mayors, consequent to a recent amendment to the relevant law.
In Chennai, the incumbent Mayor Saidai Duraisamy does not figure in the list of candidates. Notably, former Rajya Sabha Member N Balaganga, and former MLAs, K Kuppan, JCD Prabhakar, VNP Venkataraman, and KP Kandan are in the fray besides many sitting councillors.
In a release here, AIADMK announced candidates for corporations of Chennai (200), Madurai (100), Coimbatore (100), Tiruchirappalli (65), Thanjavur (51), Dindigul (48), Tirunelveli (55). Also, for the corporations of Vellore, Salem, Erode, Tirupur and Tuticorin, it named 60 candidates each for the polls slated to be held on October 17 and 19.
AIADMK also has named 655 candidates for the posts of District Panchayat Ward Members in 31 districts which includes Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Tiruvannamalai, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur.
On candidates for civic polls, DMK treasurer and Leader of Opposition M K Stalin told reporters that the "list of candidates will be released after it is ready."
DMK is holding negotiations with allies including Congress for finalising the list of candidates.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief Su Thirunavukkarasar said party aspirants could submit their nominations in their respective district party offices. He named party observers.
Elections will be held to elect people's representatives to over 1.31 lakh civic body posts, including 1,18,974 posts in rural and 12,820 posts in urban local bodies in two phases. Counting of votes will be taken up on October 21. Last date for filing nominations is October 3 and the nominations will be taken up for scrutiny the next day.
Tamil Nadu has a total of 5.80 crore voters, with 2.88 crore of them being men and 2.92 crore women and nearly three lakh electronic voting machines will be used.
Corporation mayors, deputy mayors, chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of municipalities, town panchayats, district panchayats, panchayat unions, and vice-presidents of village panchayats are elected by councillors and ward members.
Councillors of Corporations, municipalities and town panchayats are elected directly by the people. Similarly, village panchayat presidents, ward members of village panchayats, district panchayats and panchayat unions are elected by people.
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