Tamil Nadu: Filing of nominations for Lok Sabha polls from today

CHENNAI: Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo on Monday said all arrangements were in place for filing nominations for the Lok Sabha elections as well as the by-elections to 18 Assembly constituencies from Tuesday (March 19). The last date for filing nominations is March 26, scrutiny will take place on March 27 and the last date for withdrawing nominations is March 29. The CEO also chaired a meeting of all DEOs (district electoral officers) and top police officers about the election preparedness.

Addressing a press meet here on Monday,  the CEO said nominations would be accepted on the ‘first-come-first-served-basis’ between 10 am and 3 pm at the designated offices of the Returning Officers.  Since March 23 and 24 are holidays, nominations would not be accepted on these days.  

Along with nominations, each candidate should file income tax statement for five years instead of one year.  Besides, the candidate should also mention the criminal cases, if any, against him and the punishment awarded. The candidate should also give advertisements in three newspapers or television channels on the information about the cases already faced and pending ones.

Stating that the model code of conduct would be observed strictly, the CEO said expenditure observers would arrive in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. The general observers would arrive on March 23. After the announcement of the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, unaccounted cash of `677 crore had been seized by the EC squads.  Till date, 1,48,206 defacements at public properties and 1,12,159 defacements at private properties have been removed across the State. 

The CEO said that 8.4 lakh applications had been received for inclusion of names in electoral rolls and of them, 6.81 lakh applications had been approved.  So far, 17,020 licensed arms have been deposited by their owners and 61 weapons impounded while licences have been cancelled for 25 persons.  Also, 6,228 non-bailable warrants have been executed across the State. Apart from these, 2,111 preventive arrests have been made.

TMC gets bicycle symbol

As for allocation of symbols, the CEO said the EC had allocated ‘Bi-cycle’ symbol to the Tamil Maanila Congress and the PMK had sought Mango symbol, but the Commission was yet to pass any order on that.  

On row over Rahul at Chennai college

The Chennai district DEO has sent his explanation on the participation of Congress president Rahul Gandhi at a programme at Stella Maris College recently.  The DEO said permission for that programme had been obtained one month ago and only after the college permitted, Rahul Gandhi took part in the programme.  

“We have sought some more clarifications. Based on that, the question whether the Congress leader had violated model code would be examined,” the CEO added.