CHENNAI: The electoral field for the October 6 Assembly bypolls in Madurantakam (SC) and Dharapuram (SC) was pruned on Thursday, with 49 of the 99 nominations filed in the two constituencies being rejected during scrutiny, leaving 50 candidates eligible to contest for now.

In Madurantakam, 48 nominations were filed, of which 20 were rejected and 28 accepted. In Dharapuram, 51 nominations were filed, with 29 rejected and 22 accepted.

In Madurantakam, the scrutiny was conducted at the RDO office under the supervision of election officer Narendra. The rejected nominations were mainly due to incomplete forms and failure to submit the required documents, officials said.

The accepted nominations include those of TVK's Maragatham Kumaravel, DMK's Parandhaman, AIADMK's Kanitha Sampath, CPM's Suganthi and NTK's Janakiraman.

In Dharapuram, scrutiny was conducted under the supervision of RDO Felix Raja. Among the 22 candidates whose nominations were accepted are TVK's P Sathyabama, DMK's S Suganya, AIADMK's K Bhanumathi, CPI's P Lakshmanan and NTK's M Karthika. The nominations of 13 Independents were also accepted.

Officials said 29 nominations were rejected in Dharapuram for procedural deficiencies, including failure to submit affidavits within the prescribed time, non-submission of mandatory documents and discrepancies in polling station numbers mentioned by some proposers of Independent candidates.

Saturday is the last date for withdrawal of nominations, following which the final list of candidates will be published. In Madurantakam, the election officer said two EVMs would have to be deployed at each polling station if the number of candidates in the final fray remains above the permissible limit for a single machine.

The Madurantakam election officer said flying squads had so far seized cash and other items worth around Rs 8 lakh. Two complaints received through the online grievance mechanism were resolved within 100 minutes, he said.

There have been no complaints so far alleging distribution of cash or gifts to voters in Madurantakam, Narendra said.

The Madurantakam bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of AIADMK MLA Maragatham Kumaravel, who later joined TVK and is contesting the bypoll on its ticket. The Dharapuram bypoll followed the resignation of AIADMK MLA P Sathyabama, who subsequently joined TVK and is contesting as the party's candidate.