CHENNAI: The battle lines are drawn for the Lok Sabha elections with as many as 845 candidates in the fray when the time for withdrawal of nominations got over at 3pm, on Friday. Of the 845, a whopping 559 candidates are independents, 57 are from recognised national parties and 55 from recognised State parties. Besides, 174 from other registered parties are also in the fray.
Of the 937 nominations found valid during scrutiny, 92 were withdrawn on Friday, the last date for withdrawal of papers, leaving 845 in the fray. Of them,779 are men and 65 are women and one is a transgender who is contesting from South Chennai constituency.
Significantly, during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections too, exactly 845 candidates were in the fray. The number of men and women candidates remained almost the same. During 2014, 789 men contested. The figure has now come down slightly – 779. Similarly, 55 women contested the last LS elections and this year, it has gone up to 65. Similarly, of the 305 valid nominations for the by-elections to the 18 Assembly constituencies, 36 were withdrawn on Friday, leaving 269 in the fray.
Of them, 241 are men and 28 women. In Thoothukudi 37 candidates are in the fray. In the by-elections to the 18 Assembly constituencies, the highest number of candidates (40) are contesting from Perambur and Gudiyattam has the lowest number candidates (7).
A close look at the number of candidates who contested in the past elections, reveals that the number has been increasing steadily in Tamil Nadu with a couple of exceptions and rose to 845 candidates in 2014 and remains the same now. In the 2009 LS elections, 823 candidates contested, including 775 men and 48 women.
For the current elections, the highest number of candidates (42) are contesting in Karur followed by South Chennai (40) and Thoothukudi (37). On the other hand, Nilgiris constituency recorded the lowest number
candidates (10).