BJP may be pitted against AIADMK in bypolls
The by polls are slated to be held on September 18
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-08-31 06:43 GMT
Chennai: The BJP is all set to take on AIADMK in the ensuing local body by-polls on September 18. While the ruling AIADMK on Friday announced the candidates for byelections to local bodies, the other political parties are yet to spell out the names of the mayoral candidates. Congress, PMK and the Left parties are yet to disclose their strategy.
The ruling AIADMK, continuing its style of announcing poll candidates much in advance, declared the three mayoral candidates for Coimbatore, Tiruneveli and Thoothukudi corporations. While the DMK announced boycotting of local body bypolls, the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK has fielded Coimbatore city unit secretary Ganapathy P. Kumar for the post of Coimbatore mayor. For Tirunelveli, E. Bhuvaneshwari, party district women’s wing assistant secretary, and for Thoothukudi A.P.R. Antony Graci, district women’s wing assistant secretary, will contest for the mayor’s post, a party release said.
BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday told reporters that the BJP-led NDA would convene on September 2 to draft the list of candidates and wards from which NDA would contest. Meanwhile, DMK president M Karunanidhi, who announced on Friday that his party would boycott the byelections to local bodies, said that there was too little time to select candidates.
The State Election Commission (SEC) had on Thursday announced September 18 as the poll date for mayoral elections for Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi corporations and other vacant municipal council posts. The counting of votes is scheduled for September 22, according to the SEC.