CHENNAI: Voting for the Lok Sabha elections for the 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu will take place on April 19. The state will go to polls in the first phase of the seven-phase election announced by the ECI for the whole of India on Saturday. The state will know the poll results after 45 days on June 4. The byelection to the Vilavancode Assembly constituency will also be held along with the Lok Sabha poll on April 19.
Filing of nominations will begin on March 20 and the last date for filing of nomination is March 27. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on March 28, and March 30 will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations.
Since the nominations will start on March 20, the political parties in Tamil Nadu have to wrap up their negotiations with their alliance partners regarding seat sharing and identification of constituencies, besides selection of candidates, in the next few days. While the DMK-led alliance has already completed a major part of this exercise, the AIADMK and the BJP are yet to finalise their alliance partners. They will now be under pressure to complete the talks and other aspects as early as possible.
Today last day to register names in electoral roll, says Sahoo
Speaking to reporters at the secretariat, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said the model code of conduct (MCC) has come into effect immediately. Also, the flying squads, static surveillance teams, video surveillance teams, and other teams will start working in all districts, he said.
Asked about ECI mentioning Tirukoyilur Assembly constituency on the list for constituencies for byelections, Sahoo clarified that the byelection would be held only for the Vilavancode constituency and not for Thirukoyilur as K Ponmudy is continuing as the MLA of the constituency. The Supreme Court has suspended his conviction and sentence in a disproportionate assets case.
The CEO indicated that those who have not enrolled their names in the electoral rolls can do so till March 17 (Sunday) through online mode. Booth-level officers will distribute Form 12-D to voters above 85 and voters with disabilities at their residences. The forms have to be filled and returned to BLOs for these voters to exercise their franchise from their residences, he said.
Questioned about the complaints from political parties about holding Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu in the first phase itself since they have very little time for the election work, the CEO said, “The ECI would have prepared the schedule after taking into account the countrywide perspective of elections.”
On the request from small traders that the ceiling of taking only up to Rs. 50,000 in cash during the election time should be raised to Rs.2 lakh, the CEO said, “The Rs 50,000 ceiling stands.” Banking authorities will keep a tab on digital transfer of money and they will take action if there are unusual transactions.
The CEO had already instructed the secretaries of all departments to ensure that no announcement about new schemes or issuance of G.Os takes place after the notification of the election. To ensure this, the secretaries should draw a line after the last entry of the G.O register, take a photocopy of the last page where such a line has been drawn, and send it to CEO’s office within two hours of the notification of the elections, Sahoo said.
