Erode East bypoll: Edappadi K Palaniswami set to announce candidate in a day or two

Chennai, Jan 27: AIADMK's interim general secretary K Palaniswami is all set to announce his faction's candidate for the Erode East Assembly seat in a day or two, ending suspense on who would taken on the Congress heavyweight E V K S Elangovan in the February 27 by-election.

He would name the candidate with ally BJP indicating an announcement on the party's stand on supporting a common candidate for the by-poll. ''Our leader Palaniswami is determined to ensure the AIADMK wins this election and has been initiating steps accordingly. He will announce the candidate soon,'' said R M Babu Murugavel, AIADMK spokesperson.

Murugavel, who is the party's State joint secretary, legal wing, claimed the political fortunes are in favour of the Palaniswami-led AIADMK and that the party would not face any difficulty in securing the Two Leaves symbol from the Election Commission.

Though it remains to be seen if the expelled AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam would also take a plunge by nominating his candidate, as he has been insisting, former AIADMK leader and New Justice Party founder A C Shanmugam had appealed to him to avoid any embarrassment by fielding a candidate.

Shanmugam had recently urged the former to support a common candidate to take on the DMK combine.

Stating that his party would announce its stance in a day or two, BJP senior leader C P Radhakrishnan said the BJP would not interfere in the internal affairs of the AIADMK. ''Our party president K Annamalai would make the stand clear in a day or two,'' he said.

During the 2021 Assembly elections, the constituency was allotted to the Tamil Maanila Congress, which contested on the AIADMK's Two Leaves symbol and lost the seat by a margin of about 8,000 votes, to Elangovan's son Thirumahan Everaa.

''As per alliance dharma, both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had approached the BJP and sought support for their factions,'' Radhakrishnan told PTI.

A source in the AIADMK said Palaniswami held a marathon 7-hour meeting with the senior leaders at Erode on Thursday to identify a candidate and also to devise a strategy to face the poll. Irrespective of whether or not his faction would get the AIADMK symbol to contest, Palaniswami is said to have asked his party members to perform and win so as to consolidate their presence as the only AIADMK in the State.

He had already formed a jumbo poll panel comprising 111 members under former State Minister and Erode strongman K A Sengottaiyan, to take up effective campaigns in the constituency. Several legislators, Parliamentarians besides senior leaders too are part of the committee.

The name of former Erode East MLA K S Thennarasu is doing the rounds.

But for the factionalism, the AIADMK is quite strong in evolving a mechanism to strengthen party committees at booth level. This could be matched only by the ruling DMK in the state.

DMK senior and State Housing and Urban Development Minister S Muthusamy, who represents the Erode West Assembly constituency, said his party has constituted poll panels for each polling booth, totalling 1,006 members.

The numerical strength apart, our president and Chief Minister M K Stalin's good performance card will ensure an easy victory for the Congress candidate, Muthusamy opined. The BJP had already formed a 14-member election committee.