Filing of nominations for the elections to the urban local bodies, including the Tiruchi Corporation, has gained momentum.
Most of candidates, who had filed nominations in the first four days since the beginning of nomination, were Independents. Just 21 nominations were received for the Tiruchi Corporation until Tuesday.
However, a flurry of activity was witnessed on Wednesday as the candidates of main stream parties began submitting nominations. A total of 51 candidates filed for various wards in Tiruchi Corporation on Wednesday alone.
Most of them were from the DMK, which had released its candidates list for about 50 wards out of 65 wards in Tiruchi Corporation. The candidates filed their nominations in the respective zonal offices.
The total number of candidates, who have filed their nominations for various wards in Tiruchi Corporation has now gone up to 80.
It is said that the DMK has almost finalised its seat allocation arrangement for the Tiruchi Corporation. It has set aside 15 wards for its alliance parties. While the Congress has been allotted five wards, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (M) have been allotted two wards each. The Indian Union Muslim League and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi were said to have been allotted one ward each. The remaining candidates were expected to file nominations on Thursday.
The Congress is yet to release the names of its candidates.
Though, the AIADMK was the first in releasing its candidates, only a few of them have filed their nominations so far. It has announced candidates for all the 65 wards for the Tiruchi Corporation. A senior leader of the AIADMK in Tiruchi said that instruction has been given to the candidates to file their papers on Thursday.
Similarly, the BJP candidates, which is fighting the urban local body elections, were expected to file papers on Thursday.
COVID protocol violated
Corporation Commissioner P. M. N. Mujibur Rahuman, who is also the Returning Officer, said that he had received inputs that some candidates had violated COVID-19 restrictions while filing nominations. Since the filing of nomination was expected to peak on Thursday, instructions have been given to the Assistant Returning Officers and the police not to allow more than one person for filing nomination.
A district election official said that 150 nominations were received in the district on Wednesday. The total number of candidates for all urban local bodies in Tiruchi had gone up to 232.