JOIN USOPS faction withdraws candidate from Erode bypoll
His political stocks already dwindling to a new low, former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam on Monday lost yet another battle to his one-time junior colleague, Edappadi K Palaniswami, by asking the candidate fielded by him to withdraw in favour of the former’s nominee in the Erode (east) bypoll scheduled for February 27.
The official reason cited for the major climbdown – this time, too, peace was brokered by the BJP – is to enable K S Thennarasu, the official candidate of the AIADMK announced by its interim general secretary Palaniswami, to get the party’s magical Two Leaves symbol. As expected, the Election Commission asked the Returning Officer to treat Presidium Chairman A Tamizh Magan Hussain as the signing authority for the A & B forms for Erode (east) by-election.
The EC’s decision came after Hussain submitted affidavits of as many as 2,501 members of the General Council, AIADMK’s highest decision making body, giving their seal of approval for Thennarasu’s candidature, while only 128 members, perceived to be OPS’ supporters, opposed his nomination.
BJP, which decided not to contest the bypoll, also requested OPS to withdraw his faction’s candidate, B Senthil Murugan, from the fray to prevent the split of Opposition votes in the by-election, which is an acid test for Palaniswami’s leadership.
With an overwhelming majority, the AIADMK hopes that its candidate will get to contest in the Two Leaves symbol – the matter reached the Supreme Court as the Election Commission is yet to ratify the July 11 GC decision appointing Palaniswami as interim general secretary and expelling OPS from the party.
With the records in the EC still mentioning OPS as coordinator and EPS as joint coordinator, the AIADMK moved the court seeking the Two Leaves symbol for its candidate. It is now unclear whether EPS alone will sign the B-form or OPS will also sign the document.
“We have decided to withdraw our candidate Senthil Murugan. The goal is to ensure the success of the Two Leaves symbol,” Ku Pa Krishnan, a senior member of the OPS team said.
He also said the OPS camp will campaign for Thennarasu as he is contesting on the Two Leaves symbol left behind by party founder M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa.
“We forced OPS to withdraw his candidate because too many nominees from the Opposition will only strengthen the ruling DMK alliance. OPS was told to suspend his fight till the bypoll. We couldn’t antagonise EPS or rub him the wrong way. The BJP needs AIADMK for the 2024 elections and the general thinking was that this isn’t the time to experiment. So, we have now ensured a single candidate from Opposition,” a senior BJP leader told DH.
The bypoll, which was necessitated due to the death of incumbent MLA Thirumahan E Ve Ra on January 4, is a popularity test for the 20-month-old DMK government and an acid test for AIADMK, which has been facing successive electoral defeats. Congress has fielded Thirumahan’s father and former TNCC chief E V K S Elangovan.