TN local body elections on Oct 13,15

Chennai, Sep 19 (UNI) Elections to urban and rural local bodies in Tamil Nadu would be held in two phases on October 13 and 15, State Election Commissioner D Chandrasekaran announced today.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Chandrasekaran said the counting of votes would be taken up on October 18 and the first meeting of elected ward members would be held on October 25. The indirect elections to Mayors and Deputy Mayors to the Corporations would be held on October 28, he said.

The notification will be issued tomorrow, when filing of nominations will begin, he said adding the model code of conduct would come into force from tomorrow.

He said elections to Chennai, Salem, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli Corporations, 45 municipalities, 23 third grade municipalities, 281 Town Panchayats and 195 Panchayat unions would be held in the first phase on October 13.

In the second phase on October 15, elections to Madurai and Tiruchirapalli corporations, 57 Municipalities, 27 third grade Municipalities, 280 Town panchayats and 190 Panchayat Unions would be held, he said.

Mr Chandrasekaran said 80,458 polling booths would be set up, including 55,484 in rural and 27,974 in urban areas. The counting would be held in 886 centres.

While 436 counting centres would be located in urban areas, the remaining 430 would be located in rural areas, he said.

A total of 4,64,19,395 electorate are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections, he added.

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