As Tamil Nadu is fast approaching the assembly polls, the political parties in the state are chalking out the strategies, holding talks with the alliance for seat-sharing, and initiating the drive of collecting nominations from the members who wish to contest in the elections. The parties have begun the campaign trials and talks with the alliance over the numbers of seats and constituencies with the expectation that the state will go into polls at the end of April.

The top political parties have launched the drive of receiving nomination papers from the candidates who are interested to contest in the polls. While the Tamil Nadu Opposition DMK had started getting the nominations from its members on February 17, the state ruling ADMK had begun its drive of receiving nominations from its members on Wednesday - February 24 when the party had celebrated the 73rd birth anniversary of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. 

Finding the prospect to display their allegiance towards the late Chief Minister, top leaders, and hundreds of ADMK members had gathered at the party headquarters in Chennai and they had paid their respects to Jayalalithaa. The top leaders of the party - Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had joined cut the cake to celebrate Jayalalithaa's birthday following which they had begun the drive of collecting nominations from the members to contest in the upcoming polls. 

The ADMK party has decided to contest in the assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry, and on Wednesday, the party had started its drive of receiving the nominations from the members. The leadership had said that the members can submit their nominations with Rs 15,000 each for contesting in Tamil Nadu, Rs 5,000 for contesting in Puducherry, and Rs 2,000 in Kerala. The party had said that the members can submit their nominations from 10 am to 5 pm from February 24 to March 5, 2021. 

Beginning the drive, Edappadi Palaniswami, Panneerselvam, and some of the senior ministers had submitted their nominations on Wednesday through which they had revealed their constituencies from which they will contest in the assembly polls. The revelation from the top leaders had come at a high time when there were multiple speculations over the choice of constituencies from the top leaders. 

According to reports, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has moved his nomination papers to contest again from his Edappadi assembly constituency in Salem district for the upcoming assembly polls. He is currently representing the Edappadi constituency and in line with him, Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam had also moved his nomination in which he had mentioned that he would be contesting from Bodinayakanur constituency in Theni district, which is his current constituency. 

Along with the top two leaders, some of the senior ministers had also moved their nominations to contest in the polls - Forest Minister Dindigul Srinivasan to contest from the Dindigul constituency again, School Education Minister Sengottaiyan from Gobichettipalayam constituency in Erode district, and Local Administration Minister SP Velumani from Thondamuthur constituency in Coimbatore district. 

According to reports, it has been expected that the top leaders of the ADMK would re-contest from their current constituencies and the final list of the candidates from the ADMK is expected to get unfolded in the second or third week of March. On the other hand, DMK's drive of collecting nominations will come to an end by Wednesday and hundreds of members had moved their nominations. Besides both the rival parties, actor turned politician Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam had stirred speculations after the reports close to him had said that the actor will be contesting in the Alandur constituency in Chennai.