EC issues notification for 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls

Chennai: Election Commission on Friday issued the notification for the May 16 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu signalling the start of filing of nominations in all the 234 constituencies.

"The Governor of the state of Tamil Nadu has, by notification issued under sub-section (2) of Section 15 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and published in the official Gazette of the state on 22nd April 2016, has been pleaded to call upon all Assembly constituencies in the state, to elect members to the Legislative Assembly," an official release said.

The last date to submit nomination papers is April 29 and it would be scrutinised the next day. May 2 will be the last day for withdrawal.

Polling will be held from 7 AM to 6 PM and the counting of votes will be done on May 19.

Around 5.6 crore people are eligible to cast their franchise in about 65,000 polling booths.

Tamil Nadu is witnessing a multi-cornered contest with AIADMK and DMK facing off in the electoral battle with PWF-DMDK-TMC combine and PMK and the BJP-led alliance.

Among the top leaders in the poll fray are AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, DMK President M Karunanidhi, his son MK Stalin, DMDK founder Vijayakant, MDMK's Vaiko and PMK's chief ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss.