Chennai: With the State Election Commission announcing on Monday that the rural local body polls in the nine newly created districts will be held in two phases on 6 and 9 October, Tamilnadu has entered poll mode.
According to sources, the two major parties of the State- the ruling DMK and the main opposition AIADMK- will finalise seat sharing with their alliance partners soon and the candidates’ list will be announced.
The model code of conduct came into effect in these nine districts with the announcement of the polls.
The counting of votes will take place on 12 October, State Election Commissioner V. Palanikumar announced on Monday.
Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm with the last hour — 5 pm to 6 pm — reserved for Covid-19 patients and patients with symptoms of the viral infection.
Palanikumar said the code of conduct would come into immediate effect in the districts of Kancheepuram, Chengalpet, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi where the polls would be held. In 28 other districts, elections would be held on 9 October for 789 posts in the local bodies, which are lying vacant, said the State Election Commissioner.
The candidates can start filing their nominations from 15 September and the last date for filing nominations will be 20 September, he said.
A total of 76,59,720 voters would exercise their franchise in the two phase polls. As many as 1.10 lakh government employees would be engaged in poll duty. The commission would engage an IAS officer as election observer for each district.