Tiruchi Corporation to go to polls in the first phase

The announcement on the election came after the Madras High Court upheld the merger of the Tiruverumbur Town Panchayat with the Tiruchi Corporation. Fling of nominations will begin on Friday. The last date for filing of nominations is October 7. Last date for withdrawals is October 10 and counting of votes will take place on October.

Nominations for the post of Mayor should be filed at the Corporation office and for the wards at the respective zonal offices.

The State government had already issued an order merging the Tiruverambur town panchayat, Pappakurichi, Ellakudi, Keezha Kalkandarkottai and Alathur village panchayats, all located in the eastern periphery of the city, with the Tiruchi Corporation.

Five more wards are added to the Corporation, consequent to the delimitation process. The Corporation currently has 60 wards in the four zones of Ariyamangalam, Golden Rock, Srirangam and K.Abishekapuram. Wards 61, 62 and 64 would come under the Ariyamangalam zone and wards 63 and 65 under the Golden Rock zone.

Corporation Commissioner K.Veera Raghava Rao released details of the reservation of wards here on Thursday.

Twenty wards would be reserved for women (general) and 39 have been classified as general. Four wards have been reserved for Scheduled Caste (general) and two for SC (women).

The government has already issued an order reserving the Mayor's post for women (general). The post had been de-reserved in 2006 and brought under the general category. Prior to that, the post had been reserved for women (general) for 10 years since 1996.

Mr.Rao also released the photo electoral rolls for the five near wards that are being added.

The five wards have 42,937 voters including 21,237 women, 21,699 men and one transgender. With this the total number of voters in all the 65 wards of the Corporation will be 5,84,691 including 2,90,433 men, 2,94,222 women and 36 transgenders.

Consequent to the delimitation, 745 polling stations would be set up for the local body elections in the 65 wards.

Mr.Rao told The Hindu that all preparatory arrangements for conducting the elections for the Corporation have been completed.

The Corporation machinery was ready and fully geared up for the conduct of the elections.