Chennai: Except the ruling AIADMK and the Opposition DMK, all other parties are struggling to name candidates for Chennai corporation polls. With 50 per cent reservation for women coming in to force, the recognized smaller parties like PMK, TMC, BJP, DMDK and the PWA allies need 100 strong women candidates to take on the Dravidian majors and this had robbed polls of the usual fervor, opine confidential sources with Chennai corporation.
“The poll mood is dull and the number of nominations from individuals and the non registered parties is comparatively very low this season. Four days have passed since the corporation started accepting nominations and only four more days are left for the last day of nominations. The response from political parties is relatively dull this season”, said a revenue official accepting nomination forms.
In case of wards reserved for women and scheduled castes, nominations are very minimal and this is visible in wards recently annexed to the city corporation. In south Chennai the nominations are brisk when compared to north and central Chennai.
So far the maximum nominations had come from AIADMK (252) and 10 nominations from the other registered political parties. In all, 84 independents have submitted their nominations, district election sources said putting the final number of nominations to 346 in Chennai on Thursday.
The cancellation of direct elections to mayor had also robbed the extravaganza of polls and the smaller parties usually pitch in celebrities as their mayoral candidates, but now the party with maximum number of councillors can only elect a mayor or municipal chairman, a senior official explained, adding that the corporation council will be conducting indirect elections for 23 posts in Chennai including the post of mayor, deputy mayor, committee and zonal committee chairmen posts by the last week of October.
Nominations pick up in rural areas
On day four about 22,696 aspirants submitted their nomination papers to contest in the October civic polls. According to state election commission sources so far 65,000 nomination papers have been submitted to the presiding officers and the maximum number of nominations came on Wednesday.
So far the about 1200 nominations have come from those contesting for corporation ward councillors and 40,000 applications have come for village ward panchayat member elections. A total of 1,31,794 posts, including 1,18,974 in rural local bodies and 12,820 posts in urban local bodies are to be filled during the two phase of direct polls scheduled on October 17 and 19.
A total of 13,362 posts in rural local bodies and 1,328 posts in urban local bodies would be filled up through indirect polls including the posts of mayors and deputy mayors for 12 TN cities including the capital Chennai.
Meanwhile state election commissioner P Seetharaman passed statutory orders insisting the district administration to engage in to vehicle checking and ensure that there is no distribution of freebies or cash for votes. He also instructed the poll officials to check out those possessing licensed pistols and follow norms prescribed as per the model code of conduct.
