Chennai: The Tiruvarur bypoll on January 28 is all set for a triangular contest with the opposition DMK and the AMMK announcing candidates on Friday and the ruling AIADMK is holding a meeting of its governing council on Saturday to choose its gladiator.
Announcing the candidature of party’s Tiruvarur district secretary Poondi K. Kalaivanan, DMK president M.K. Stalin said his nominee had the support of all the alliance partners, including the Congress party. It may be recalled that there have been demands from several quarters in the DMK that Stalin should contest the seat since it had been held by his father M. Karunanidhi and had fallen vacant following his death.
Obviously, Stalin chose sober political logic over emotions and sentiment while making up the mind over the Tiruvarur candidate; it is said that he had also consulted the party seniors before deciding on Kalaivanan, who has been the party's influential district secretary since 2009. He was a witness to the brutal killing of his brother Kalaiselvan by throwing bombs in November 2007 and after the DMK lost power in May 2011, he had to rush to the High Court for relief after the Tiruvarur Collector detained him under the Goondas Act.
“I will work hard along with our party cadres to win this seat (Tiruvarur) with a huge margin and justify the confidence reposed in me by my leader Stalin”, Kalaivanan told reporters soon after his candidature was announced.
Earlier in the day, the AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran presided over a state-level advisory meeting at Thanjavur and announced S. Kamaraj, the party's Tiruvarur district unit secretary, as the by-poll candidate. He said the nomination had the clearance from Chinnamma VK Sasikala, party general secretary.
AMMK will prove that tiruvarur is jaya’s stronghold: TTV
Speaking to reporters amid loud cheering from party members, TTV exuded confidence of victory in the Jan. 28 by-poll "even on a larger scale, bigger margin" than what he had scored at RK Nagar, when the AIADMK lost the seat and the challenger DMK forfeited the deposit. "The AMMK will prove that Tiruvarur is Amma's (Jayalalithaa) stronghold", TTV said.
AMMK candidate Kamaraj had begun as president of the AIADMK student wing in Needamangalam and became the party's district unit secretary in 2006. A staunch loyalist of the Sasikala family, he lost his job as the local panchayat union chairman in 2011 when the Mannargudi clan fell out of the favour with Jayalalithaa. He however remained a member of the party and was fielded as AIADMK candidate in Mannargudi in the 2016 polls, only to lose to DMK's TRB Raja.
The by-election was necessitated due to the death of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on August 7 last year. This would make this contest very important for son Stalin as his leadership skills would be put to test and he must retain the seat for the DMK.
The AIADMK too will be under extreme pressure to win at Tiruvarur and prove it still enjoys public support post-Jayalalithaa. The bad show at RK Nagar needs redemption for the ruling party.
Several eyebrows had gone up when the Election Commission announced the Tiruvarur by-poll on Monday while keeping mum about the other pending by-elections. Some critics alleged that this was only to help the ruling party.
