Over 30K nominations filed on last day for urban civic body polls

Congress candidates were seen waiting in queues filing papers as the seat-sharing took several days only to be concluded on the night of the penultimate day in several areas. Independents and dummy candidates put by political parties added to the long list of aspirants.

“The total number of nominations will near the 70,000 mark and scrutiny of nominations will begin on Saturday,” a senior poll official told DT Next. According to reports, a new record of close to 35,000 nominations were received on Friday. The town panchayat areas of Salem, Erode, Tirupur and Kanyakumari saw brisk filing. Kanniyakumari district received closed to 4,300 nominations with 3,700 aspiring for town panchayats. Chennai with 200 wards has so far received 3,000 nominations. The numbers may increase as counting will continue on Saturday. As per data, around 1,400 candidates filed their nominations on Friday alone.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu State Election Commissioner V Palani Kumar urged the public and the candidates to lodge complaints to the grievance cell functioning at the TNSEC headquarters. So far 194 complaints were received and all of them were forwarded to the district election officers seeking action and report. The public should avail of the toll-free facility 18004257072, 18004257073 and 18004257074, a statement from the TNSEC headquarters said. The TNSEC also instructed the block development observers and micro observers to look out for MCC violations and take up steps to ensure that there is no violence or untoward incidents during the campaigns. The last and final training for polling officers and presiding officers will be completed in a week, TNSEC sources said. The SEC also urged district election officers and booth level officers to ensure that infrastructure for voters like restroom, drinking water, wheelchair and ramps are provided at polling stations.