Candidates for Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency P.H. Manoj Pandian of AIADMK and S. Gnana Thiraviyam of DMK and Tenkasi (Reserved) segment K. Krishnasamy of Puthiya Thamizhagam and D. Dhanush Kumar of DMK filed their nominations on Monday.
Filing of nominations ends on Tuesday (March 26).
Interestingly, Dr. Krishnasamy, who announced that he would contest the poll in a symbol of his party’s choice, changed his decision and decided to face the poll with AIADMK’s ‘Two Leaf’ symbol.
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Accompanied by party office-bearers, Mr. Manoj Pandian, son of former MP and Speaker P.H. Pandian, filed the nomination before Returning Officer and District Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish in the afternoon.
Former Palayamkottai area secretary of AIADMK Kamaraj filed the nomination as ‘dummy candidate’ for Mr. Manoj, an advocate and former Rajya Sabha member, who declared in his affidavit that he, his wife and two daughters owned assets worth ₹10.34 crore.
Moreover, the couple also had availed loan to the tune of ₹ 2.85 crore.
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Mr. Gnana Thiraviyam also filed his nomination before Ms. Shilpa and his son Xavier Selvaraja filed the nomination as ‘dummy candidate’.
Mr. Gnana Thiraviyam, a first generation entrepreneur, has declared that he and his wife had assets worth ₹23.01 crore and owed ₹4.61 crore to financial institutions.
He exuded confidence that he would win the election with a thumping margin of over two lakh votes.
While it was widely expected that actor Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Neethi Maiyam candidate for Tirunelveli, Vennimalai, would file his nomination in the afternoon, party sources clarified that he would file the papers on Tuesday.
DMK candidate for Tenkasi (Reserved) segment, Mr. Dhanush Kumar filed his nomination before Assistant Returning Officer and Revenue Divisional Officer, Tenkasi, Soundararajan.
Dr. Krishnasamy’s son Shyam filed the nomination papers as ‘alternate candidate’ for the PT founder president.
Dr. Krishnasamy, who filed the nomination before District Revenue Officer B. Muthuramalingam, declared in his affidavit that he and his family members owned assets worth ₹25.95 crore and had loan to the tune of ₹ 1.62 crore.
When he filed the nomination for the Ottapidaaram (Reseved) Assembly segment in 2016, he had declared that his family owned assets worth ₹17.75 crore and had ₹1.59 crore loan.
Collective decision
Dr. Krishnasamy, who was elected to the State Assembly from Ottapidaaram (Reserved) constituency in 1996 as an independent and again in 2011 with AIADMK’s backing, lost the ‘battle of ballots’ in the Lok Sabha election in 2014 in Tenkasi (Reserved) constituency though he faced the polls with the support of the DMK, but with an unfamiliar symbol.
Even as preliminary reports suggested that the PT chief was in a difficult turf, Dr. Krishnasamy, after filing the nomination, announced that he would face the polls with AIADMK’s ‘Two Leaf’ symbol this time.
Asked if he had taken the decision in a bid to avoid an embarrassing defeat, Dr. Krishnasamy refuted it vehemently.
“It’s a collective decision taken following discussion with the leaders of the AIDMK and the BJP. I’ll win the battle comfortably,” he hoped.