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Tamil Nadu to go to polls in April 2001

Elections to the Tamil Nadu assembly are likely to be held in April next, Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy said in Madras on Saturday.

He told a press conference that the term of the current assembly expired on May 21 next and the commission would hold elections well before that.

However, the commission was ready to hold elections early if the state government decided to dissolve the assembly and requested for early elections.

He said elections could not be held in February next as the country would be going through a massive exercise of census.

He said the commission had not yet decided about holding by-election to the Tiruchirapalli Lok Sabha seat, necessitated by the death of Union Power Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam.

Krishnamurthy, who reviewed the progress of the issuance of Elector Photo Identity cards in the state with the district collectors, expressed concern over the low percentage of the process in Tamil Nadu.

Only 57 per cent of the voters had been given the card and he had instructed the collectors to speed up the matter to bring it on par with the national average of 70 per cent, he said, adding that with the recruitment of one more agency for preparing the cards, the process would be speeded up.

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