CHENNAI: As many as 62 candidates have been left in the fray for the April 12 bypoll for R K Nagar assembly seat here after eight independents withdrew their nominations today.
Out of the 62 candidates, six belong to the national and the state parties, while five are nominees of registered, unrecognised parties and the rest independents, said Returning Officer Praveen P Nair for R K Nagar constituency.
He said eight candidates withdrew their nominations and the final number of candidates contesting polls is 62 with eight out of them being women.
The withdrawal of eight candidates from the fray has come as a relief to authorities as one set of EVM could only cater to a maximum of 64 candidates.
District Election Officer D Karthikeyan had said days ago that the conventional ballot paper voting could be considered if the number of candidates exceeded 64.
Today was the last day for the withdrawal of nominations.
The counting of votes will be on April 15. The main candidates for the poll included TTV Dinakaran (AIADMK Amma), E Madhusudanan (AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi), N Marudhu Ganesh (DMK), Gangai Amaran (BJP) and R Loganathan (CPI-M).