Indirect polls to 335 posts in left out local bodies today 

The indirect elections will be held to fill 335 posts, including one district panchayat president, one district panchayat vice-president, 26 posts of panchayat union president, 41 panchayat union vice-president and 266 village panchayat vice-presidents, sources said.

The polling for all the rural local body chairman posts will commence at 10.30 am and the results are likely to be out by noon. The polls to all union vice-president posts will be held at 3 pm and the results will be declared by evening.

However, the TNSEC continues to be silent on the conduct of civic polls to urban local bodies.Meanwhile, the DMK legal wing in a petition to TNSEC urged the state election commissioner to instruct the District Collector, Tiruvannamalai and the concerned Returning Officer to conduct the election to the posts of chairman and vice-chairman of Thandarampattu Panchayat Union on January 30 without postponing it.

Pointing out a Writ Petition before Madras High Court, in which an interim order of status quo was ordered on January 27 and the same relates to community certificate enquiry related to DMK candidate, not relating to the election. But, by a misunderstanding of the said order, the District Collector is planning to postpone the election further without conducting it on Thursday. Any such further postponement would amount to contempt of court, as the order is passed in W.P.No.974/2020, based on the notification to conduct the election on January 30, DMK advocate R Girirajan said.