950 candidates in fray in Tamil Nadu for 39 LS seats
In 39 Parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu, as many as 950 candidates are all set to contest the April 19 Lok Sabha polls, Chief Electoral Officer, Satyabrata Sahoo announced.
With the last date for withdrawal of candidature ending on Saturday, the CEO said 950 candidates, 874 men and 76 women, are in the fray.
On the last date (March 30) for withdrawal of candidatures, 135 aspirants withdrew their nomination papers.
On March 28, the day of scrutiny of nominations, a total of 1,085 nominations were found to be valid.
Nagapattinam constituency in the Cauvery delta region has nine candidates, the least and Karur segment in western region, 54 candidates, the highest.
Thoothukudi constituency in southern Tamil Nadu has 28 contenders including DMK leader and incumbent MP Kanimozhi.
Erode segment has 31 aspirants including AIADMK candidate ‘Aatral’ Ashok Kumar who is trying his electoral luck for the first time. Ashok Kumar is one of the richest candidates in Tamil Nadu. He declared assets worth Rs 583.48 crore in his affidavit.
In South Chennai, where former Telangana Governor and BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan is contesting, there are 41 candidates including her.
Sivaganga has 20 contestants including Congress nominee Karti P Chidambaram. In Nilgiris, where Union Minister L Murugan is contesting, there are 16 candidates. In Coimbatore, where the BJP has fielded its state unit president K Annamalai, there are 37 aspirants.