Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and V C Chandrakumar.
Chennai: The DMK announced that its propaganda deputy secretary VC Chandrakumar will be nominated to contest the February 5 by-election to the Erode East constituency as the candidate for the DMK-led alliance in the State and the Congress, too, said that it had decided to give the seat to the ally after discussions in the party.
Announcing the candidate, Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin said the decision was taken in consultation with the Congress party. When the Congress had initially thought about giving up the seat to the DMK, Erode district Congress Committee had recommended the nomination of Sanjay Sampath, son of E V K S Elangovan, whose demise on December 14 had caused the election.
However further consultations within the alliance had led to handing over of the seat to the ruling DMK, for which the by-election will be a prestige issue as it could be a front runner for the General Assembly polls in 2026.
It is not clear if the AIADMK, which was not very keen on contesting the by-election whose winner will hold the post for just over a year, will now field a candidate against the DMK.
Though the BJP had earlier evinced interest in fielding a candidate against Elangovan when the earlier by-election in the constituency was held after the passing of Thirumagan Evera, it had not shown any interest so far.
So, the question that is being asked in political circles is if the by-election will be a cakewalk for the DMK with no other party willing to put up a big fight.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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