Chennai: Even as alliance partners PMK and DMDK said they would face civic elections on their own, the main opposition AIADMK has urged the State Election Commission to hold polls in rural local bodies in nine districts in a single phase.
The party’s joint coordinator has written to Tamilnadu State Election Commissioner V Palanikumar urging him to conduct the rural local body elections for nine newly-formed districts in the State–scheduled on 6 and 9 October–in a single phase.
Citing that even the state Assembly elections to 234 constituencies were held in a single phase, he said, two phases of polls would provide space for anti-national elements and create law and order problems.
Palaniswami has urged the Tamilnadu state election commission to appoint central government officers or officers from other States as nodal officers for upcoming civic polls in nine districts.
The appointment of such nodal officers will ensure absolute neutrality and this is the only way that all political parties could be held accountable for their conduct in the polls creating a level playing field, he said.