Code comes into force: Parties get little over a month for entire poll work

CHENNAI: The announcement of Assembly elections schedule came as a surprise for several parties in the state leaving just 39 days for them to finalise the alliance, hold seat-sharing talks, announce the list of candidates, campaign and contest.

This will be the first Assembly election for the state without prominent leaders like J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi. For actor Kamal Hassan and his Makkal Needhi Maiam this will be the first Assembly poll.

“The NDA alliance comprising BJP, AIADMK and PMK will hold a brainstorming session this weekend and will finish the seat-sharing talks in a couple of days. We have less than a month for the candidates to complete their campaign in Assembly constituencies and from now the party poll works and the campaign will progress at full pace,” an informed AIADMK senior told DT Next.

In a couple of days BJP leaders Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit TN and finalise the NDA seats along with the PMK leaders, the AIADMK source said.

Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Sathyabrata Sahoo declared the implementation of the model code of conduct with immediate effect and instructed the district collectors to act as the district election officers and start monitoring the poll-bound state. In a communication to the state secretaries and government department heads, the CEO said that no new project and schemes shall be started in the state in lieu of the model code of conduct.

In a new initiative, he also asked the state secretaries to submit the photocopies of registries maintained by them with a draw line mentioning the last orders. There had been allegations that the new orders are passed with post-dated entries in the registry and to prevent such events all the secretaries should share the photocopies within two hours of the press conference conclusion by the Election Commission, read a circular issued by Sahoo.