CHENNAI: More than 4,654 candidates will be in the fray for the April 23 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu, higher than the number in 2021 polls.Of the total 7599 nominations, the Election Commission of India rejected 2,460 nominations, while 485 candidates withdrew their papers during the scrutiny process.Karur will have the highest number of candidates as the authorities declared as many as 85 nominations as valid out of 108 nominations, while Ambasamudram had the lowest with just five. As many as 14 constituencies would have 30 to 37 candidates.Apart from Ambasamudram, Udhagamandalam and Gudalur (SC) also saw fewer candidates in the fray, with six valid nominations each. Orathanadu followed, with nine nominations declared valid.
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Thondamuthur witnessed the highest number of rejections, where 50 nominations were rejected out of 77 filed, while one candidate withdrew the nomination paper. “We will publish the final list of candidates in the fray on Friday,” said a senior officer in the election wing.In Chennai, ECI scrutinised and validated 47 nominations in Perambur, 41 in Kolathur and 40 in Thiru Vi Ka constituency. These three constituencies have the highest number of valid nominations.In the 2021 Assembly election, 6,665 nominations were filed, with 3,998 candidates remaining in the contest after scrutiny and withdrawals across 234 seats.One of the reasons for higher number of nominations was because of TVK’s entry, setting a four cornered contest.
