Candidates of major parties file nominations

Ruby Manoharan, Kancheepuram District Congress Committee president, filed his nomination for the Nanguneri seat before returning officer M. Nateshan.

While the AMMK and the MNM did not field their candidates, it is expected to be a one-on-one contest between Narayanan of the AIADMK and Manoharan of the Congress in Nanguneri.

As the filing of nominations came to an end on Monday, a total of 47 papers were filed by the candidates in Nanguneri, according to the returning officer.

Flanked by state ministers and party cadre, the AIADMK candidates submitted their papers with the personal affidavits. The poll officials will scrutinise the nominations on Tuesday and the final list of candidates will be released on Thursday.

According to the officials, so far 16 nominations have been received for the by-elections, including seven independents.

The usual josh among the independents and the smaller parties is missing this time, as the MLA term will last just for about 15 months as the general Assembly polls are due by May 2021.

AIADMK Minister and Villupuram strongman C Ve Shanmugham has been vested with the job of monitoring the AIADMK election work.

For Nanguneri, the AIADMK had despatched party seniors from Chennai to monitor the poll works.

Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare Rajalakshmi accompanied Narayanan during the nomination. As both the candidates are greenhorns, party leaders Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam have reached out to the state ministers and alliance partners to work in full swing to ensure the victory of the AIADMK candidates.

To counter the formidable poll works pitched in by the DMK, which recently won the Vellore Lok Sabha, the AIADMK is reaching out to regional parties and smaller outfits.

“The AIADMK is relying on the PMK to wrest the Vikravandi seat from the DMK. The PMK has managed to secure about 40,000 votes in the last 2016 Assembly polls,” said an AIADMK MLA, admitting that the elections would be a high-prized battle between the AIADMK and its arch-rival DMK. The Naam Thamizhar Katchi had also joined the poll fray by fielding candidates.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, AIADMK convener O Panneerselvam and Opposition leader M K Stalin are to tour the constituencies from Thursday. Polling will be on October 21 and the counting of votes is scheduled on October 24.

Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Publicity Kadambur C. Raju exuded confidence that the AIADMK would win by a margin of 50,000 votes in Nanguneri. The State government has initiated efforts to complete the Tamirabarani-Karumeniyar and Nambiyar river interlinking project in time to benefit farmers of Nanguneri and its surrounding places. Water bodies were being desilted to hold adequate capacity in the interest of farmers, he told reporters.

Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar, who was optimistic, said chances of victory are bright for the AIADMK. The State government brought several welfare schemes to benefit the people, who have already endorsed it, he told reporters at Thoothukudi airport.

Moreover, he said the DMK made false promises and garnered votes during the Lok Sabha elections and by-elections this year. However, it would not recur this time as people were aware of such promises.

Further, he said the candidate fielded by the Congress was not the son of soil, but the AIADMK candidate is a ‘Make in India’ product, hailing from this soil. To a query on DMK president M.K. Stalin’s statement, saying whether the State was witnessing ‘Edappadi’s rule’ and ‘sand mafia’s rule’, the minister said it was the DMK that looted the wealth of the State and amassed crores of money.

Since Stalin could not find fault with the governance delivered by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, he was making baseless charges, Jayakumar said.

Electricity Minister P. Thangamani, who accompanied, said his party would win by a margin of 30,000 votes.