Chennai: On Wednesday, political candidates began presenting papers with their parties, who then released the lists one by one, sorting out disputes among allies and also within the party local units, in preparation for the February 19 Urban Local Body elections.

The actual fight is expected to be between the alliances led by the DMK and AIADMK, while six others - BJP, PMK, DMDK, MNM, NTK, and AMMK - are going it alone in the race for power in 21 Corporations, 138 Municipalities, and 490 Town Panchayats. The DMK, which has a variety of parties in its tent, including the Congress, VCK, CPI, CPM, IUML, MNMK, TVK, and KMDK, has been failing to finalise candidate lists, despite conversations taking place at the district level.

On a daily basis, coalition partners complained at various levels about their lack of presence in the list, delaying the DMK's announcement of its nominees for Chennai Corporation, the most prominent of the 649 urban local bodies up for election.

The DMK's probable Mayoral candidates have also remained a mystery, but there are lots of rumours. There aren't many candidates because the top position is designated for a Scheduled Caste Woman.

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