With two candidates, including PMK’s candidate T. Selvam, withdrawing their nominations on the last day of withdrawal on Saturday, the voters in Tirupparankundram Assembly constituency will have a choice of 28 candidates in the upcoming by-election on November 19.
The key candidates in the fray included A.K. Bose of AIADMK, P. Saravanan of DMK, T. Thanapandian of DMDK, R. Srinivasan of BJP, L. Mahathevan of Naam Tamilar Katchi, N. Mayilsamy of Nationalist Congress Party, M. Jayaraman of Ezhuchi Tamilargal Munnetra Kazhagam, C. Ramesh of Uzhaippali Makkal Katchi and 20 independent candidates.
Interestingly, the list of independent candidates included a namesake of DMK’s candidate Mr. Saravanan. T. Saravanan, the candidate, has curiously chosen the ‘Pen nib with seven rays’ symbol, which has a slight resemblance to that of DMK’s ‘Rising sun’ symbol.
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The number of candidates in the fray for the by-election is higher than the Assembly election in May, in which there were 20 candidates in the constituency.
In the May election, S.M. Seenivel, the AIADMK candidate, won by securing 93,453 votes with a margin of 22,992 over the runner-up M. Manimaran of DMK.
However, Mr. Seenivel died of illness barely a week after the announcement of results thereby necessitating a by-election.
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Meanwhile, seizure of unaccounted cash being carried in violation of model code of conduct continued in the district.
Static Surveillance Teams seized a total of Rs. 9.38 lakh in three different places on Friday night and Saturday morning, sources said.
The seizure included seizure of Rs.7.86 lakh from one Muthukumar, who was travelling on a car near Paarapathi here on Saturday.
Officials said though he claimed that he was carrying it for business reasons, he did not have documents to substantiate his claim.