Karthik yet to decide contesting against Jaya in poll

Chennai, Apr 08 (UNI) Actor-Politican M Karthik, state chairman and general secretary of the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), is still in a dilemma over whether to take on AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the May 8 assembly poll from Andipatti.

Talking to newspersons here, he said the party high command had left the decision on contesting to him, but he was assessing various pros and cons before deciding.

Karthik, who announced that the party was contesting in 75 constituencies and came out with the list of 70 candidates, said in the event of his not contesting, the party would field a candidate against Ms Jayalalithaa in Andipatti.

He said he was in two minds whether to contest against Ms Jayalalithaa, as on the one hand the party's prestige was at stake, because of some actions of the ruling AIADMK and on the other, he had great respect for the Chief Minister.

"It is not our political culture to take on leaders of the stature of Ms Jayalalithaa and DMK President M Karunanidhi, but he feared that the party's prestige might erode beyond a tolerable limit. There is a limit to everything," he said.

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