Chennai, April 9 (IANS): A total of 845 candidates are in the fray for the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, said the Election Commission Wednesday.

In a statement issued here after the time for withdrawing nominations ended, the poll panel said the candidates comprise 789 men, 55 women and one transgender.

According to the Commission, out of 906 valid nominations received, 61 candidates withdrew, leaving behind 845 to fight it out.

Chennai North constituency has the highest number of contestants - 45 - while Napattinam seat has the lowest number of candidates - nine. All the remaining 37 seats in the state have contestants in double digits.

Interestingly the Nilgiri constituency saw the rejection of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate S.Gurumurthy's nomination as he had not filed his papers on time.

The BJP and its alliance parties were upbeat about the chances of defeating DMK's sitting member A.Raja, a prime accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case.

Elections will be held April 24.