TN assembly polls: 47 seek congress tickets from Thanjavur

THANJAVUR: Assembly election fever gripped Thanjavur district, with the Congress party conducting interviews for 47 candidates who have applied for contesting from four assembly constituencies in Thanjavur North district here on Wednesday.  

Congress party received applications from candidates who want to contest assembly elections at Satyamurthy Bhavan at Chennai from February 10 to 17. Interviews for these candidates are held in the respective districts headquarters.

S.M.Idayathullah from party headquarters at Chennai interviewed the 47 candidates. Out of them, six have applied for contesting from Thanjavur, 18 from Peravurani and 18 from Pattukottai and five from Orathanadu.

Idayathullah said that questions were asked to candidates about the party’s strength in each assembly constituency, candidate’s strength and popularity in the constituency, social background of the candidate and preparations for meeting election expenses.

A list of eligible and more eligible candidates will be prepared and submitted to the state congress committee. After seats-sharing exercise with the alliance partners is completed, the state committee of the party will decide the candidates, Mr Idayathullah added.

Congress interviews ticket seekers
Rani Venkatesan former Congress MLA and executive Committee member of the Tamil Nadu congress committee (TNCC) interviewed men and women aspirants for Congress party tickets for the coming Assembly elections, here on Wednesday.

The former MLA, accompanied by the Tiruchy Urban district Congress president G Jerome Arokiaraj and party’s North district president N Jayaprakash held interviews with nearly 100 applicants from Tiruchy east, west, Srirangam, Tiruverumbur, Manaparai, Lalgudi, Manachanallur, Musiri, and Thuraiyur (Reserve) assembly constituencies of Tiruchy Urban, North and South Districts.

The interviews were held as per the directions of the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and TNCC president, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, she said.

However, R C Babu, president of the Tiruchy South District congress unit and strong supporter of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, did not turn up for the today’s interview, raising several eyebrows.