DMK president M.K. Stalin is facing a piquant situation, as many senior party leaders are urging him to enter the fray in Tiruvarur, where a byelection is scheduled for January 28.
Tiruvarur was last represented by his father and DMK leader M Karunanidhi, who won by a margin of over 68,000 votes.
Sources said that though Mr. Stalin had not made up his mind, he was unlikely to accept their proposal, as he represents the Kolathur Assembly constituency.
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“What is preventing him from taking a final decision is that he is not interested in causing a byelection to yet another constituency [Kolathur],” a party source said.
The DMK leaders met him on Tuesday morning and had another meeting with him at his Alwarpet bungalow in the evening. A senior leader said though no decision was taken, they would meet Mr. Stalin again on Wednesday to place their request that he should enter the fray from Tiruvarur.
Senior leaders, including party treasurer Duraimurugan, headquarters secretary T.R. Baalu and women’s wing leader Kanimozhi were closeted with Mr. Stalin for over an hour.
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Mr. Duraimurugan, when contacted, said, “We have not said anything about this. There is a party general council and other relevant bodies that would take a decision on who would be fielded in Tiruvarur.”
The argument of the party leaders, who are in favour of Mr Stalin contesting in Tiruvarur, is that has he has nurtured the Kolathur constituency in such a way that it would be a cakewalk for the DMK candidate in the wake of a bypoll.
“The senior leaders sought to prevail upon him that Tiruvarur is a prestigious constituency won by Karunanidhi with the highest margin. They felt Thalapathy (Mr. Stalin) will be the right candidate [to maintain the legacy],” said sources in the DMK, while admitting that Mr. Stalin had some “good candidates” in his mind for Tiruvarur.
“We are not going to lose anything if he resigns from Kolathur. In Tiruvarur, the ground is totally in favour of us and his (Stalin’s) victory by a huge margin will galvanise the party for the Lok Sabha polls,” a leader argued.
But a section of leaders rejected the idea saying that the DMK should not end up converting a bypoll into a high profile election.