Yercaud geared up for the by-election

Salem: Election heating is picking up fast in the cool hill station of Yercaud, where the by-election to fill the vacancy caused by its legislator S. Perumal of the AIADMK will take place on December 4.

His wife Sar­oja is the party candidate and will take on the DMK’s V. Ma­ran. It will be a straight contest since the other two major parties, DMDK and the Con­gress, did not field candidates; nor have they announced support to any party so far.

All the state ministers are campaigning in Yercaud and the highlight will undoubtedly be the trip by chief minister Jayalalithaa. The date of her travel has not yet been announced.

In the opposite camp, DMK president M. Kar­un­anidhi has made it known that he would not be able to campaign in view of his health condition and son Sta­lin would sh­o­ulder the burden.

The AIADMK camp is pretty upbeat while the rivals seem still at sea. Only the Salem DMK heavyweight T.M. Selva­ganapathy, MP, is slogging it out while former minister Durai Murugan pays occasional visits. “Our victory is a foregone conclusion. We are only working towards a record margin and loss of deposit for the rival,” said an AIADMK senior.