Chennai: “The Governor of Tamil Nadu hereby declares April 18, the date on which the polls for the General Elections and bye-elections to 18 assembly constituencies will take place in Tamil Nadu, to be a public holiday,” said a government order that was released by chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan yesterday.
The Election Commission, under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, had notified that the election day for General Elections to Lok Sabha and Bye-Elections in the State be declared as public holiday, said the GO.
On 18 April in a single phase polling, elections to the 39 Parliamentary seats in the State will be held. Tamil Nadu votes in the second phase of the seven-phase elections to a total of 543 Lok Sabha seats.
The main contenders in the coming polls are the ruling AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam and TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK).