2014 General Elections - Number of contestants in Tamil Nadu

A record number of 845 candidates, including 55 women and one transgender, are left in the fray for the April 24 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu. The final number of candidates were out as 61 persons pulled out of race on the last day for withdrawal of nominations. On an average, 21 candidates are contesting the 39 Lok Sabha seats, with a sizeable number them being independents.

A close look at the number candidates who contested the past elections reveal that the total number of contestants has been steadily increasing with a couple of exceptions. The upcoming election’s 845 is the highest the State has ever seen. In 2009 LS elections, 823 candidates, including 775 men and 48 women, were in the fray. The number of candidates in the elections in the past were as follows:

General Election year	Number of Contestants
1967	127
1971	115
1977	195
1980	248
1984	214
1989	506
1991	461
1996	749
1998	296
1999	362
2004	571
2009	833
2014	845

Election Year	Total Contestants	Male	Female	Others
2009	823	775	048	---
2014	845	778	066	001

         

For the current elections, Chennai South constituency tops the list with 42 candidates while the least number of fighters (nine) are in Nagapattinam constituency followed by Nilgiris, where 10 candidates are in the fray.

In 10 constituencies, no women candidate is contesting. Since the number of candidates exceed 15 in 27 constituencies, two ballot units will be used in those polling booths. In Chennai North and Chennai South, three ballot units will be used. As far as the three constituencies in Chennai are concerned, there are 102 candidates. In North Chennai, there are 40 candidates (38 men and 2 women), in South Chennai, there are 42 candidates (37 men, 5 women) and in Central Chennai, 20 (19 men and one women).

For the bypoll in Alandur assembly constituency, there are 14 in the fray. Bharati Kannama (independent candidate from Madurai) is the lone transgender to contest in this elections.

#	Constituency	Number of Contestants
01	Chennai South	42
02	Chennai North	40
03	Ramanathapuram	31
04	Madurai	31
05	Tiruchy	29
06	Tirunelveli	27
07	Sivaganga	27
08	Arakkonam	27
09	Namakkal	26
10	Trippur	26
11	Virudhunagar	26
12	Salem	25
13	Coimbatore	25
14	Karur	25
15	Kanyakumari	25
16	Tiruvanamalai	24
17	Vellore	24
18	Theni	23
19	Kallakurichi	22
20	Sriperumbudur	21
21	Perambalur	21
22	Villupuram (SC)	20
23	Chennai Central	20
24	Mayiladuthurai	19
25	Arani	19
26	Tenkasi (SC)	18
27	Pollachi	18
28	Dindigul	18
29	Cuddalore	17
30	Krishnagiri	15
31	Dharmapuri	15
32	Chidambaram (SC)	15
33	Erode	14
34	Tiruvallur (SC)	14
35	Tuticorin	14
36	Thanjavur	12
37	Kancheepuram (SC)	11
38	Nilgiris (SC)	10
39	Nagapattinam (SC)	09