Chennai, Mar 18 (UNI) With just a day left for the filing
of nomination papers for the April six Tamil Nadu Assembly
polls and bypoll to Kanniyakumar Lok Sabha seat to end,
prominent candidates of various political parties on Thursday
filed their papers.
Congress Candidate Vijay Vasanth, son of H Vasanthakumar,
whose death led to bypoll for Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat,
filed his papers today.
He was pitted against senior BJP leader and former Union
Minister Pon Radhakrishnan.
Prominent among those who filed their papers for the Assemby
polls included BJP State President L Murugan (Dharapuram-R),
actress Khushbu Sundar (Thousand Lights), BJP Vice-President
and former IPS Officer K Annamalai (Aravakurichi), DMDK
Treasurer Premalatha Vijayakanth (Vridhachalam), who is the
wife of Party Founder and actor Vijayakanth, among others.
Vijayakanth had contested from Vridhachalam in 2006 within
six months of floating his own party and won by a good margin,
polling more than 40 per cent votes.
While BJP is facing the polls as part of the ruling AIADMK
Front, DMDK had walked out of the AIADMK alliance following
failure of seat-sharing talks and allied with the AMMK of
TTV Dhinakaran, who is the nephew of late J Jayalalithaa's
close-aide V K Sasikala.
Disgruntled AIADMK MLA and Former Minister Thoppu N Venkatachalam,
who was denied ticket this time entered the fray as an Independent and
filed his papers at Perunthurai from where he was elected in the 2016
Assembly polls.
Another sitting AIADMK MLA C Chandrasekaran, who was elected from
Senthamangalam-(R) was also denied ticket this time and he filed his
nomination as an Independent from the same seat.
Besides, candidates of various parties, including the DMK,
Makkal Neethi Maim of actor-politician Kamal Haasan, AMMK
and Naam Tamizhar Katchi also filed their papers in their
respective constituencies before the Returning Officer.
Tomorrow is the last date for filing of nominations and the
scrutiny would take place on march 20. The last date for
withdrawal is March 22.
UNI GV 1300