950 candidates in the fray in 39 Lok Sabha constituencies: CEO
A total of 950 candidates are in the fray in the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu after withdrawal of nominations that ended on Saturday, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo has said.
Talking to reporters, he said 1,085 of the 1,749 nominations filed had been accepted, and after withdrawal of 135 nominations, the number of candidates stood at 950.
Mr. Sahoo said the maximum of 56 nominations were accepted in Karur, 53 in South Chennai, and 49 in North Chennai. In the Vilavancode Assembly constituency, which has fallen vacant after the resignation of sitting MLA Vijayadharani, 22 nominations were filed, and 14 of them were accepted.
He said the registered political parties would be allotted their original symbols and then symbols would be allotted to the Independent candidates. “If more than one candidate of the registered parties claims the same symbol, it will be allocated on a priority basis to the candidate who contested and won in that constituency in the previous election. If there is no such person, the al
If more than one Independent candidate asked for the same symbol, allotment will be done by draw of lots
SATYABRATA SAHOO Chief Electoral Officer
lotment will be done draw of lots,” he said.
If one Independent candidate asked for a particular symbol, he would be allotted that symbol. If more than one Independent candidate asked for the same symbol, the allotment will be done by draw of lots.
Mr. Sahoo said there were 6,23,33,925 voters in the State. Among them, 3,06,05,793 were male, 3,17,19,665 were female and 8,467 were of the third gender.
He said there were 58 voters aged above 120 and Returning Officers would decide whether to go to their homes to collect postal ballots. “The voting machine will bear the names of 15 candidates and a NOTA button. If there are more candidates, each additional voting machine connected can carry the names of 16 candidates each. The NOTA button will be at the last on the machine,” he said. by