With seat-sharing talks dragging, first-time aspirants for MLA posts fear that they are running out of time. According to rough estimates both AIADMK and DMK together have got more than 6000 applications forms from maiden ticket seekers.

Racing against time, both the ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK has fast-tracked the candidate selection process. While DMK leader MK Stalin has started the interview process on Tuesday, AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami have invited the party aspirants to come for the interview on Thursday at the party headquarters.

A press statement issued by OPS and EPS said that the individuals who have submitted the applications should come up with receipts for the interview.

“We were told that the elections would be in the last week of April, but not it has been advanced by three weeks nearly. During the 2016 assembly polls, every candidate had around 60 days for campaigning, but now the clock is running out of time,” opined an AIADMK MLA in north Tamil Nadu.

However, a few party insiders feel that in the era of IT, one month is sufficient to reach out to voters. “Earlier there were no social media and a candidate has to organise public meetings and huge rallies, but now the message transformation is instant. Further public awareness had increased due to mobile penetration,” said Poonga Nagar Selvam, north Chennai AIADMK functionary of MGR Mandram.

Further, the Chief Minister has already completed the first round of statewide campaign and the Dravidian parties have formed booth level committees to speed up the campaign works, Selvam said.