Chennai: T.T.V. Dhinakaran will throw his 'hat' in the ring to take on the AIADMK and the DMK in the Dec. 21 R. K. Nagar by-election.
The battle for the R. K. Nagar Assembly constituency will become all the more interesting once the ruling AIADMK announces its candidate on Thursday. In March this year, the EC froze the AIADMK's Two Leaves symbol and asked the contestants to face the by-poll with new symbols. Then, the TTV camp secured the 'hat' (thoppi) symbol and E. Madhusudhanan got electric pole symbol.
The Thoppi, nevertheless inspired several memes and social media caught up with Tamil superstar Rajinikanth's "Thoppi" villainous laughter in the film Chandramukhi to actor Dhanush's Veelaiyilla Pattadhari to vent the anger against Sasikala family.
The BJP, which has asked the Election Commission to freeze the 'hat' symbol and other parties would be in for a shock if Dhinakaran manages to get the "hat" symbol this time too.
The T. T. V. Dhinakaran camp on Wednesday officially announced that the ousted AIADMK leader will contest the Radhakrishnan Nagar by-poll. "TTV Dhinakaran will contest the forthcoming by-poll," senior leader in the camp, S. Anbazhagan told reporters. He will contest the by-election with the "approval" of his aunt (jailed V. K. Sasikala), Anbazhagan added.
Dhinakaran, who called on his aunt in Bengaluru, vowed to regain the Two Leaves symbol. He claimed the decision to award the Two Leaves symbol to the (united) AIADMK under Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam was "not final" and that he would soon approach the Supreme Court challenging it.
"The R. K. Nagar election will see a direct contest between me and the DMK. Other parties hardly matter," he told reporters when asked about the election. He would file his nomination papers on Dec.1.
