Udhagamandalam: While all political parties have announced candidates for the three assembly constituencies in the Nilgiris, BJP is yet to announce its candidate for the Ooty constituency.
This is the first time Congress is fighting BJP directly in the constituency. The other two constituencies, Coonoor and Gudalur (reserved), will see a direct fight between DMK and AIADMK as in the last election. BJP had contested in the 2011 and 2016 elections without any alliance.
Ooty constituency, which is in existence since the 1957 election, has been a Congress bastion. The party had won nine assembly elections in the constituency out of 14 polls mostly either in the front led by one of the two major Dravidian parties, except in 1977. It contested alone in 1989 and won the seat. Since then, AIADMK and DMK, in whichever poll they allied with Congress, allotted the Ooty constituency to the party.
However, in 2011 election, Congress candidate R Ganesh (DMK alliance) lost to his rival AIADMK candidate Buddhi Chandran, a former minister. Ganesh reclaimed the seat in 2016, defeating AIADMK’s Kappachi D Vinoth.
Incumbent Congress MLA Ganesh has been named for the third time as the Congress candidate by the DMK front. BJP, which has been allotted the constituency by the AIADMK front, is yet to name its candidate, even as there is only two weeks left for the election.
According to sources, BJP lacks a strong candidate to fight the popular Congress MLA.
AMMK has fielded Denadu T Lakshmanan , an ex-AIADMK cadre, as its candidate, while MNM has chosen Suresh Kumar.
All MLAs who had won from the Ooty constituency right from 1957 polls were from the Badaga community, a major indigenous community in the Nilgiris.
With 2,05,138 voters, including 1,06,775 women, Ooty constituency has 308 polling stations.