In this study, the effect of splitter plate on fluid flow characteristics past an elliptic cylinder of different axis ratios (AR=1.0−0.5) is numerically investigated for various Reynolds number (Re = 50–200). The equations governing fluid flow are discretized using Streamline Upwind/Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) based finite element method (FEM). The presence of a splitter plate alters the wake region where vortex shedding is suppressed. Depending on AR and Re two critical lengths of splitter plate are defined, one for suppression of vortex shedding and the other when shear layer interaction in the wake is inhibited. The correlations for the critical lengths of splitter plate as a function of AR and Re are derived using regression analysis. It is observed that, the variation of integral parameters like drag, lift and St are not monotonic with increasing plate length. From the results it is concluded that for a particular combination of Re and AR with suitable splitter plate length, the total drag is minimized approximately from 2% to 38%. Finally, Cd_avg is selected as an objective function and modelled using Response Surface Approximation (RSA). Furthermore, a single-objective Genetic algorithm has been implemented to obtain optimum configuration for minimum Cd_avg. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd