Thirumavalavan not to contest in polls

Chennai, Mar 30: Dalit Panthers party of India (DPI) General Secretary Thol Thirumavalavan,whose party is a constituent of the AIADMK led Democratic People's Alliance (DPA), today sprang a surprise, saying he would not be contesting in the May eight assembly elections.

Mr Thirumavalavan is the second leader in the DPA to decide against entering the electoral fray after Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) General Secretary Vaiko, announced last night that he would not seek election.

Releasing the list of party candidates here, Mr Thirumavalavan said he was not contesting as he had to intensively campaign for the victory of his party candidates in the nine constituencies allotted and will undertake a state-wide electioneering to ensure the victory of AIADMK led DPA.

The DPI, which is contesting in eight reserved constituencies and one general constituency has fielded five Deputy General Secretaries, Treasurer, Organising Secretary, Advocates' wing secretary and a writer.

Stating that the DPI was keen on getting the Election Commission's recognition by winning the nine constituencies, Mr Thirumavalavan said the party, which was contesting on an independent symbol, would be getting the symbol only ten days before the polling.

As such, he faced a huge task of popularising the new symbol among the people and did not want to confine himself to a particular constituency, by seeking election, he said.

UNI