PMC President to contest from Modaliarpet in May 8 polls

Pondicherry, Apr 30 (UNI) Founder President of the Puducherry Munnetra Congress (PMC) and former minister P Kannan is contesting from Modaliarpet constituency after a gap of one term in the May eight assembly elections to the Union Territory.

After keeping away from the contest in the 2001 elections, Mr Kannan floated PMC and forged an alliance with the AIADMK, in which the party is contesting nine seats.

Mr Kannan, who was not defeated so far at the hustings is contesting for the fifth time, barring 2001. He won the elections in 1985 on a Congress ticket from Cassicade constituency and retained the seat in 1991.

He, however, switched over to Lawspet constituency in the 1991 elections and returned to Cassicade in 1996. In the last elections, Mr Kannan, who had floated PMC by then, allotted the Cassicade seat to his trusted lieutenant K Lakshminarayanan and kept away from the contest. Mr Kannan was a minister twice and Speaker of the territorial assembly once.

In the May eight assembly elections, Kannan is pitted against Dr M A S Subramanian, the DMK candidate in the Congress-led Democratic Progressive Alliance(DPA), which is hoping to retain the seat.

The presence of Sabapathy alias Kothandaraman, a rebel Congress candidate, contesting as an Independent in the fray is a matter of concern to both Mr Kannan and Mr Subramaniyan. The fact that Mr Sabapathy held the seat for four terms in a row, since 1974, and even won the seat as an Independent in 1991, is adding to their woes.

Though, the candidates of the BJP and DMDK are also there in the fray, the main fight will be between the trio.

The 32973 electorates of Modaliarpet will decide their fate on May eight.

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