Two main nominees of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), C. Mahendran for Pollachi and A.P. Nagarajan for Coimbatore filed their nominations on Tuesday, the second day for filing of nominations.
Filing of papers began on Saturday and after two days of holidays, filing resumed on Tuesday.
AIADMK nominee Mr. Nagarajan for Coimbatore along with a standby candidate filed their nominations with the District Collector, District Election Officer and Returning Officer for Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency Ms. Archana Patnaik.
Coimbatore AIADMK nominee A.P. Nagarajan has declared his income as Rs 2.06 lakh and that of his spouse as Rs 1.98 lakh. Cash on hand was Rs 2.75 lakh, movable properties were worth around Rs. 51 lakh and immovable property was valued at Rs 2.87 crore.
Pollachi Lok Sabha nominee for AIADMK C. Mahendran filed his papers with the Principal Assistant Returning Officer and Pollachi Sub-Collector Rashmi Sidharth Jagade. In Coimbatore, accompanied by Traffic Ramasamy of People’s Protection Movement, the movement’s nominee for Coimbatore K.R. Subhash filed his nomination papers for Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat.
U.K. Vellingiri of CPI-M filed his papers for Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat as a standby candidate for the party’s main nominee P.R. Natarajan.
Three more days are left for filing of nominations and April 4 will be the last day.
Our Tirupur Staff Reporter adds:
The AIADMK candidate for Tirupur Lok Sabha constituency V. Sathyabama filed her nomination papers with Collector G. Govindaraj, who is also the Returning Officer, here on Tuesday.
Accompanied by Ministers MM.S.M. Anandan and Thoppu NN.D. Venkatachalam MLA (Bhavani constituency) P.G. Narayanan and Tirupur Mayor Visalakshi Appukutty, Mrs. Sathyabama handed over four sets of nomination papers.
Minor tension was there outside the Collector’s cabin as Minister Thoppu Venkatachalam was not there among the stipulated four persons who accompanied the candidate into the room.
Despite the rules allowing only four persons to accompany the candidate, Mr. Venkatachalam tried to enter the room but the police officials posted outside stopped him from entering.
When he insisted on going inside, the police officials categorically stated that a fifth person would not be allowed at any cost and told the Minister that if he wanted to enter the room, one of the persons inside should come out.
Eventually one of the MLAs, who was inside, came out to facilitate the entry of the Minister into the Collector’s cabin.
The affidavit filed by Mrs. Sathybama along with the nomination paper stated that she had movable properties worth Rs 39,79,942.50. Her husband and her child had Rs 12,34,631.50 and Rs. 2,54,000, respectively.
The candidate had agricultural land, having a market value of Rs 45 lakh, and non agricultural land worth Rs 1.9 lakh.
Her husband had Rs 1.10 crore worth agricultural land and Rs 7 lakh worth non agricultural land.
K. K. Kaliappan, a former MP, filed the papers as substitute candidate for Sathyabama.
Our Udhagamandalam Special Correspondent adds:
With a call to voters to ensure that A. Raja, candidate of the DMK and sitting member of the Lok Sabha loses his deposit, his main rival in The Nilgiris Parliamentary constituency C. Gopalakrishnan of the AIADMK filed his nomination papers before the Returning Officer and Nilgiris Collector P. Sankar here on Tuesday. When asked about his chances, he told The Hindu, “I am extremely confident of my victory.”
Later, addressing party supporters, he adverted to the 2G scam and said that Mr. Raja should be defeated by a margin of at least two lakh votes. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa will definitely become the Prime Minister of India. He assured that, if elected, he would strive for the development of the constituency.
In his affidavit, 52-year-old Mr. Gopalakrishnan declared that that he has not been convicted and that there were no cases pending against him.
He said that he owned a house which was now valued at Rs. 75 lakh and had movable assets including jewellery and a vehicle worth Rs. 20,24,620.
His wife G. Susheela had movable assets including jewellery worth Rs. 14,16,569.
A procession in which hundreds of persons participated, marked the occasion.
Stating that Mr. Gopalakrishnan’s nomination papers were the first to be filed in the constituency, Mr. Sankar said that he had filed two more.
Another candidate G. Ramkumar had filed his papers as a substitute.
