Chennai: With just two more days left to file nominations for the Lok Sabha elections, Monday saw a mad scramble for presenting the papers at the designated offices that witnessed scuffles and scenes of bonhomie between rivals though the Congress party alone could not name its nominees for the Mayiladuthurai and Tirunelveli constituencies and for the by-election to Vilavancode Assembly seat till closing time.
In the announcement that came later, the Congress high command nominated C Robert Bruce for Tirunelveli and Tharahai Cuthbert for Vilavancode but was unable to decide on the candidate for Mayiladuthurai, over which there was reportedly a tug of war between Praveen Chakravorthy and S Thiurnavukarasar.
Even the Tirunelveli candidate was named because Chief Minister M K Stalin was addressing a campaign meeting at Nanguneri to introduce the coalition’s nominees for Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari constituencies in the evening. Since it would be pointless to seek votes for an unknown candidate of the Congress by the Chief Minister, the announcement for Tirunelveli was made in a hurry, party sources said.
Earlier in the day, three other Congress nominees, M K Vishnu Prasad, Jothimani and Sasikanth Senthil, called on Stalin at his residence, along with TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai, while two of the three DMK candidates for the Chennai constituencies filed their nominations. The visit of North Chennai DMK candidate Kalanidhi Veerasamy, along with an entourage, to the polling office in Royapuram created a flutter.
The AIADMK candidate Royapuram Mano had arrived at the office ahead of the DMK members and had obtained token number 7. Though the DMK workers came late, the leader of the group, Minister S K Sekarbabu, barged in and took a seat opposite the officer, prompting the AIADMK members, led by former Minister D Jayakumar, to raise an objection, triggering an angry exchange of words.
Even as the argument was on, with the police personnel keeping a close watch, BJP candidate for the constituency R C Paul Kanagaraj landed at the spot but had to wait for the two parties to sort out the difference and also filed their nominations. With the presiding officer making it clear that Token No 7 will be given precedence over Token 8, the dispute was sorted out.
DMK candidate for South Chennai, Tamilachi Thangapandian, was just completing the formalities before the presiding officer when BJP candidate Tamilisai Sounararajan arrived at the office. Both the candidates hugged each other and exchanged pleasantries, besides greeting each other. AIADMK nominee Jayavardhan.
For Chennai constituency, the DMK candidate Dayanidhi Maran did not file the nominations while AIADMK alliance candidate Parthasarathy of DMDK and BJP’s Vinoj P Selvam presented their papers. Maran is expected to file nomination on Wednesday, the last day. In the neighbouring Sriperumbudur constituency, DMK candidate T R Baalu also filed his papers.
More than 75 per cent of the candidates all over the State chose Monday to file nominations as it was considered an auspicious day. Once the filing was done, the candidates and their followers started their campaign work by calling party cadre and booth committee members for introductory meeting and kick starting the electioneering for the April 19 polling.
The State’s polling machinery was also activated by the Election Commission of India (ECI) as officials and flying squads buzzed past the roads, keeping a vigil. At the MTH Road, near the Padi over bridge in Chennai, officials stopped a container trucker after it was found to be carrying sacks of BJP flags, caps and such material.
The truck was coming from Haryana and was supposed to deliver the goods at the BJP office. But the officials wanted the way bills and such papers to be produced and drove it out to a police station as huge crowds gathered on the roads, suspecting the goods carried by it to be cash bundles.
The Chief Electoral Officer Sathyabrata Sahoo, who met media persons, said that it had received 3,05,000 complaints of defacement of public walls and 1,00,800 complaints of unauthorized painting on private walls. He said 1,403 complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations and 178 FIRs had been filed.
