Even as the filing of nominations begins on Friday, major political parties including All India NR Congress and principal Opposition Congress have not yet finalised the candidates for the May 16 Assembly polls.
While the Congress-DMK alliance, which apportioned the seats in a 21:9 ratio, is stuck in allocation of constituencies, the ruling AINRC is yet to spell out its plan of action on whether it would go it alone or face polls with alliance of like-minded parties. The AIADMK has had a head start when declared that it was going it alone and released the list of candidates for all 30 constituencies.
AINRC president and Chief Minister N.Rangasamy, who has been on an extended pilgrimage, has been parrying questions on when the party would announce its candidates with the stock response that the decision would be conveyed at the appropriate time.
When contacted Mr. Rangasamy, he said, “I will announce soon. We have still got time.”
Sources in the party said the Chief Minister might defer the announcement to even a day before the filing of nomination closes in order to quell any dissidence from among partymen who are denied a ticket. At the same time he would keep the door open till the last minute to rope in dissidents from other parties to the AINRC.
This would essentially mean that Mr. Rangasamy’s decision will come after the announcement of candidates by the Congress-DMK combine.
The leaders the Congress and DMK, which are yet to reach agreement over some seats, have submitted their list to respective headquarters and are awaiting an amicable solution to be reached at the higher level.
Meeting with Sonia Gandhi
Pradesh Congress Committee president A.Namassivayam said, “We have sorted out certain issues on the choice of constituencies. There will be a meeting with president Sonia Gandhi on Friday who will approve the list and later in a day or two the list of candidates will be out.”
In a rebuttal to the AINRC’s hopes of reviving an alliance, the AIADMK declared that it would contest alone in all 30 constituencies of UT. Former Rajya Sabha MP P.Kannan, party unit secretary P.Purushothaman, other sitting MLAs are among the candidates. The AIADMK candidates have also started door-to-door canvassing.
Meanwhile, the AIADMK partymen are preparing to host a grand reception to AIADMK general secretary and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa who will visit Puducherry on Monday to campaign for the party candidates.
The seat-sharing talks of People’s Welfare Front(PWF) and DMDK have not made any headway so far. However, CPI, CPI-M, VCK, MDMK and RSP have announced their candidates.
