With just hours to go for the last day of filing of nominations for by-poll to Indira Nagar, the ruling N R Congress is yet to officially announce its candidate for the seat. Parties such as Congress, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Bahujan Samaj Party have announced candidates and started their field work days ago. As per the notification, candidates can file their papers till at 3 p.m on Monday.
The delay in announcing the candidate has given enough room for speculation with some reports indicating strong power struggle within the ruling party. “The founder president of N R Congress and Chief Minister N Rangasamy was treading a cautious line in selecting the candidate and so was the secrecy,” sources said.
There are at least four strong contenders, one being a very close relative of the Chief Minister, for the seat and Mr Rangasamy was taking maximum effort to avoid any dissent within his party and followers.
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As Indira Nagar being a strong hold of the Chief Minister, which has elected him in the last Assembly with a margin of around 20000 votes gathering a vote share of more than 90 per cent, there are several claimants for the seat, said a party source
“The Chief Minister may or may not make a formal announcement about the candidate before filing the papers. But one thing is certain, the selected person will file the nomination between 12 and 1. 30 p.m,” the source added. Another report doing the rounds was that the Chief Minister had already zeroed in on the candidate and was waiting for an auspicious time, which he follows very systematically, to make an announcement. Meanwhile, Congress candidate V. Aroumougam would file papers on Monday, sources said.