Thousands of candidates filed their nominations for various posts in rural local bodies across central districts on Monday.
A festive atmosphere prevailed in villages as a majority of candidates of political parties rushed in to file their papers.
Many of them went in processions with their supporters before filing their nominations at the offices concerned.
In Tiruverumbur union in Tiruchi district, a woman, R. Nalini, 32, carried her three-month-old infant with her to file her nomination paper for the post of Vazhavanthankottai village panchayat president.
Pudukottai
In Pudukottai district, 6,416 nominations were received during the day on Monday. A majority of the nominations — 4,179 — were filed for the village panchayat wards and 1,158 for village panchayat presidents. Nine hundred fifty nominations were received for panchayat union ward members and 129 for district panchayat wards. With this, a total of 13,965 nominations have been filed for the rural local bodies in the district.
Ariyalur
In Ariyalur district, 3,078 nominations were received during the day. While 1,949 nominations were filed for village panchayat wards, 493 nominations were for village panchayat presidents.
Five hundred and seventy four nominations were received for panchayat union members and 62 for district panchayat wards. As many as 6,913 nominations have been filed for the local bodies in the district totally.
Karur
The election to rural local bodies in Karur district has attracted a total of 4,905 nominations.
On Monday, 1,585 nominations were filed for village panchayat wards, 355 for village panchayat presidents, 471 for panchayat union wards and 62 for district panchayat wards.
Clash averted
A potential clash between AIADMK and DMK cadre was averted at the prompt intervention of the police. A minor skirmish was witnessed over bursting of crackers when processions taken out by the rival parties towards the Karur Panchayat Union office converged near Vennaimalai. However, police intervened to calm frayed tempers.
Former Minister V. Senthil Balaji, who led the DMK procession, said the local body elections would lay the foundation for making party leader M.K.Stalin the next Chief Minister of the state.
Addressing party workers, he called upon the cadre to work hard to ensure that the AIADMK candidates lost their deposits.
