Nearly 4.72 crore voters, including 2.39 crore women, are expected to exercise their franchise in all the 39 constituencies going for the Lok Sabha polls on May 10 in Tamil Nadu, as the hectic campaign comes to a close.
In the neighbouring Union territory of Pondicherry, an estimated 6.36 lakh voters are expected to cast their votes on the same day to elect a single representative to the lower house of Parliament.
A total of 571 candidates, including 23 women, are in the field in Tamil Nadu, while there are 21 contestants for the lone seat in Pondicherry.
While North Madras constituency has the maximum number of over 20 lakh voters, Perambalur has the minimum number of 9.99 lakh voters.
The South Madras constituency will have the maximum number of contestants -- 35, while Pollachi and Perambalur (both res) constituencies have only seven candidates each.
The fate of 11 former Union ministers and leaders of several parties will be decided in the polls. They include T R Baalu (DMK-south Madras), A K Moorthy (PMK-Chengalpattu), Ginjee Ramachandran (MDMK-Vandavasi), E Ponnusamy (PMK-Chidambaram), KV Thangka Balu (Cong-Salem), R Prabhu (Cong-Nilgiris), Dr Subramanian Swamy (Janata-Madurai), A Raja (DMK-Perambalur) Dhanushkodi Adhithan (Cong-Tirunelveli), P Chidambaram (Cong- Sivaganga) and Pon Radhakrishnan (BJP-Nagercoil).