Straight contest between BJP, Congress in two seats
Minutes after filing his nomination, Raja exuded confidence of winning the election.
Chennai: With BJP national secretary H. Raja and Aircel Maxis fame Karti Chidambaram of the Congress filing their papers for the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency, on Monday, the BJP would take on the Congress in two constituencies and the DMK in one seat.
The party, which has been allotted five seats in the seat-sharing pact with the AIADMK, will fight against the CPI (M) and IUML - both allies of the DMK-led Secular Progressive alliance which also includes the Congress.
Apart from Sivaganga, the saffron party will be engaged in a straight contest with the Congress in Kanyakumari where Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan will lock horns with Congress legislator and party’s working president H. Vasanth Kumar.
A keen tussle in on the cards in Thoothukudi between BJP president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan and DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi. In Coimbatore, the BJP strongman C. P. Radhakrishnan (Coir Board chairman) will be engaged in a straight contest with CPI (M)’s P. R. Natarajan and in Ramanathapuram, the BJP state vice president Nainar Nagendran will take on IUML’s K. Navas Kani.
Minutes after filing his nomination, Raja exuded confidence of winning the election. He claimed that he would win by a hefty margin owing to the advantageous position of the AIADMK-led mega alliance.
Contending that the mega alliance stitched by the AIADMK will work in his favour at the hustings, Raja said “in the last LS election, AIADMK, which contested alone, obtained 45 per cent votes, NDA got 19.5 per cent and the DMK obtained only 2 per cent more than the BJP. So political analysts and media should understand who is in more advantageous position. I will win by a heft margin,” Raja told reporters.
Karti on the other hand has assured to ensure investment to industrialise the constituency. “My first task, if I am elected, will be to strive and obtain huge investments in Sivaganga to facilitate industrialisation and create employment opportunities,” said Karti whose father and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram had represented the constituency seven times.
On Raja’s accusation that he would wield money power during election, he replied, he and his party's allies would spend only the sum specified by the election commission.