A total of 64 candidates, including 39 on Thursday, have filed nominations for the post of Chennai Mayor. As many as 3,445 candidates have filed nominations for councillor in the expanded Chennai Corporation.
Some of the candidates who filed nominations on Thursday include former Union Minister of State for Railways A.K.Murthy of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), leader of Opposition in the Corporation Council Saidai P.Ravi of Congress, Rajendra Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and independent candidate E. Sarath Babu, an alumnus of IIM (Ahmedabad).
Former Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss accompanied Mr. Murthy and said the election manifesto of the PMK for the civic body elections would focus on tackling mosquito menace, traffic congestion and pollution in the city.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.V. Thangkabalu and former Union Minister E.V.K.S. Elangovan accompanied Mr. Saidai P. Ravi. Mr. Thangkabalu said Mr. Saidai P.Ravi was successful as opposition leader in the Corporation Council.
Independent candidate E.Sarath Babu said that he would use social networking sites to mobilise support from educated youngsters for his campaign.
Improvement of all Chennai Schools to better standards would be his priority. Efforts would be taken towards implementing innovative practices in waste management, better roads and call centre for a wide range of civic services by the Corporation, he said. BJP candidate Rajendra Kumar said that he would take efforts to improve local administration in Chennai Corporation.
Other parties that were in power earlier have spoiled the local administration in the past few years, he said.
