E Madhusudanan, presidium chairman and a former Minister will be the AIADMK candidate for the December 21 by-election to be held from the RK Nagar Assembly constituency. The name of Madhusudanan was announced jointly on Thursday by the AIADMK steering committee co-ordinator O Panneerselvam and Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy at the party headquarters in Chennai.
Madhusudanan was the candidate of the AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) faction headed by Panneerselvam in the by-poll schedule for April 12 from the same constituency which fell vacant following the demise of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. But the election Commission of India decided to rescind the poll due to allegations of widespread cash distribution in the constituency by the candidate of AIADMK (Amma) faction, TTV Dinakaran.
Since the cancellation of the April 12 poll, both the factions decided to merge and eased out the Sasikala clan from the party leadership. The Election Commission of India last week allotted the Two Leaves symbol and name of the party to the merged faction.
The Sasikala clan has decided to field Dinakaran from the constituency making it a triangular contest. The DMK, the principal opposition party, too has decided to filed Maruthu Ganesh, a local satrap of the party. The VCK and the CPI have already announced their support to the DMK candidate while the CPI(M) is expected t follow suit.
Parties like the DMDK-led by Vijayakant and PMK-led by S Ramadoss have announced that they would neither contest the electionnor support any of the candidates. Vijayakant left for Singapore for medical check up and would not be back in Chennai at least for a fortnight. Since the BJP does not have any presence in the constituency, its decision to contest or not to contest would not have any impact in the outcome of the poll.
The allocation of Two Leaves symbol to Panneerselvam and Palaniswamy faction resulted in many party veterans staking claim for the candidature from RK Nagar.
“There are many reasons for the increase in the number of seekers for the seat. R K Nagar is associated with the memories of Amma (Jayalalithaa) and the ECI verdict allotting the Two Leaves symbol have shot up the value of the party,” said former minister Gokula Indira who too was one of the seat seekers. “But we decided to fall in line to the directives of party seniors OPS and EPS and honour Madusudanan, a veteran leader,” said Indira who announced that she would work for the success of Madhusudanan.