Trouble seems to be brewing among DMK cadres in the tea town of Coonoor over the choice of the party’s nominee for the Assembly seat.
The party has nominated district secretary Mubarak for the seat, ignoring sitting MLA and former Minister K. Ramachandran.
Mr. Ramachandran’s supporters and members of the Young Badaga Association met in Kothagiri to express their displeasure. Mr. Ramachandran said that with the DMK allotting Udhagamandalam (Ooty) to ally Congress and Gudalur Assembly seat being a reserved seat, there was only one seat in the district (Coonoor) where members of the largest community, Badagas, could contest.
By denying him a chance, the DMK had taken a huge risk and was sure of losing the seat, as all other parties had nominated Badaga candidates, he said. But he would not quit the party or contest as an independent, he added.
A group of cadres assembled outside DMK president M. Karuananidhi’s house in Gopalapuram and raised slogans demanding replacement of the party’s candidate for the Ponneri constituency.
DMK’s decision
not to nominate
a Badaga
has come in
for criticism
