Coimbatore: There are 137 candidates in the fray from the 10 assembly constituencies in the district this time, according to the final list of candidates that was announced on Monday evening. Coimbatore South and Singanallur segments have the highest number of contestants (21 each), followed by Coimbatore North (20).
In the 2016 assembly election, 154 candidates had made it to the final list in the district.
The district had initially seen 317 nominations from Coimbatore South, Coimbatore North, Kavundampalayam, Mettupalayam, Sulur, Singanallur, Thondamuthur, Kinathukadavu, Pollachi and Valparai assembly segments. However, election officials had rejected 176 nomination papers after scrutiny on Saturday.
From the 141 nominations that were accepted, four candidates withdrew their nominations on Monday by the 3pm deadline that was set for the same.
Among the candidates who withdrew nominations was the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam’s dummy candidate from Sulur, S Mallikadevi. The remaining three were independent candidates - M Thatchinamoorthy from Mettupalayam, N Vellingiri from Coimbatore North and S Kannan from Kinathukadavu.
Valparai has the least number of candidates (6). Pollachi has 8 contestants.
The electronic voting machine (EVM) has only 16 buttons with the final one being NOTA. If more than 15 candidates are contesting from a constituency, two EVMs would be used in every polling booth. The names of candidates and their symbols would be fed on the EVMs soon.
In neighbouring Tirupur district too, 137 candidates are in the fray from the eight assembly constituencies. While there were 281 nominations, 111 were rejected after scrutiny on Saturday. Of the remaining 170, 33 nominations, 24 from Kangeyam alone, were withdrawn on Monday. Kangeyam still has 26 candidates in the fray.
Tirupur South and Palladam constituencies have 20 contestants each, while Udumalpet, Madathukulam and Tirupur North segments have 15 candidates each in the fray.
Independent candidates have been, meanwhile, allotted symbols like lady’s finger, ring, diamond, coconut farm, LPG gas cylinder, bucket, waist belt, autorickshaw, pot, cricket bat, mixer grinder, gift box, cup and saucer.