RS papers of candidates from 5 parties valid

CHENNAI: The nominations for the Rajya Sabha biennial polls in Tamil Nadu, filed by DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and J. Constandine Ravindran, AIADMK’s M. Thambi Durai, Congress’s Christopher Manickam, alias M. Christopher Tilak, PMK’s Anbumani Ramadoss and DMDK’s L.K. Sudhish, were declared valid, after scrutiny on Friday.

Dr. Anbumani’s wife Sowmiya Anbumani withdrew her nomination.

Seven others, who filed the nomination papers, were rejected, a release from R. Santhi, Returning Officer, said. The last date for withdrawal of nomination, if any, is March 9.

As part of preparation for the ensuing Assembly polls, a State-level training programme for the Returning Officers and IT support personnel was held in Chennai on Thursday. “The training programme included applications such as the ECINET, ETPBMS (For Service Voters), and also portals for monitoring daily MCC data, etc.,” an official release said.