The long-awaited elections to rural local bodies in Tamil Nadu will be held in two phases on December 27 and 30, the State Election Commission announced on Monday. The model code of conduct comes into force immediately in local bodies that go to elections and the poll notification will be issued on December 6, it said. The nominations can be filed from December 6 to December 13 and the scrutiny will be taken up on December 16. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is December 18. The counting of votes will be taken up on January 2.

DMK, the main opposition party in the state, however, has approached the Supreme Court, asking the government to carry out a delimitation exercise in view of wards in newly-created districts of Tenkasi, Kallkurichi, Tirupattur, Ranipet and Chengalpet, according to media reports.

Tamil Nadu's local body polls were due to be held in October 2016 and were initially stayed by the Supreme Court after the DMK filed a plea to defer the polls until reservation and delimitation of wards are completed. Since then the ruling AIADMK government also postponed the polls due to various reasons including Cyclone Gaja in 2018.

A multi-cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK and the AMMK is in the offing. The AIADMK is in alliance with the BJP, PMK and the DMDK, while the DMK is in alliance with Congress, VCK and MDMK.

-with inputs from PTI