Urban, pending civic bodies polls by 2nd week of April

According to informed government sources, the poll officials for the newly carved out districts are likely to be appointed by the end of this month and poll schedule is expected by next month.

The elections for rural local bodies across Tamil Nadu, were suspended in nine districts. The Commission will take stock by next week and with the Assembly session starting on March 9, the government officials will also brief the Commission on logistics that are ready.

A couple of litigations are also pending before the Supreme Court and the TNSEC has to complete the poll works by May, so that the poll schedule can be expected by April.

The local body elections announced by the SEC in December has been postponed in nine districts of Tamil Nadu that have undergone delimitation changes. By May this year, six months would have been passed for Kallakurichi, Tenkasi, Tirupattur, Ranipet, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Tirunelveli, Vellore and Kancheepuram districts, the official explained. Further delaying the polls will be legally difficult for the Commission and the general consensus is that to hold the polls in a two-phased manner for all the pending civic bodies, the official said.

It may be noted that the state government had carved out five new districts from four big districts delaying the rural local body polls in nine districts similarly no polls have been conducted for the urban local bodies that comprises tier one cities led by corporation and municipalities.

The local body polls are to witness a multi-cornered contest with the AIADMK, DMK, AMMK led by TTV Dhinakaran and Makkal Needhi Maiam of actor-politician Kamal Haasan in the fray. While the AIADMK-led NDA includes BJP, PMK, TMC, DMDK and NJP, the DMK-led alliance comprises Congress, CPI, CPM, VCK, MDMK, IUML and IJK.