20,000 nominations filed on penultimate day

On the penultimate day to file nominations for the February 19 urban local body polls, the offices of assistant returning officers remained jam-packed till late in the evening on Thursday. For the second consecutive day, the nominations poured in from ruling DMK, Opposition AIADMK, BJP, Naam Tamilar Katchi and independents in large numbers for the civic polls.

According to reports, reaching a record, close to 20,000 nominations were received on Thursday, pushing the total number of nominations to around 30,000. The scrutiny of nominations will be on February 5 and the counting of votes will be on February 22.

In several areas, the alliance talks between the DMK district secretaries and Communist party office bearers failed resulting in CPM and CPI candidates also jumping into the poll arena.

The AMMK led by TTV Dhinakaran had also announced the list of candidates and they were seen filing en masse nominations in central and southern Tamil Nadu. “The voters should vote for candidates with clean public image and AMMK has fielded candidates who will not loot the government assets and the public money,” party general secretary Dhinakaran said. The DMK had already started unleashing violence and corruption and if people vote for DMK in the local body polls, it will be a disaster for the public, he told reporters.

Meanwhile, ousted AIADMK leader VK Sasikala who met her supporters as part of the birth anniversary celebrations of former chief minister CN Annadurai told that the AIADMK party would soon come to her hands.

Earlier in the day, State Election Commissioner V Palani Kumar urged all the district collectors and SPs to ensure free and fair polls with corona safety norms in place. According to SEC sources, the state election commissioner (SEC) have urged the district election officers, election observers and returning officers to ensure that the poll schedule is executed in a fair manner where the public participation is encouraged with ease. The SEC during the high-level meeting also discussed the surveillance of flying squads and static teams. Security of voters and prevention of poll violence are also periodically reviewed by the SEC officials, sources said.