Sans Sasi, AMMK gets ready for polls

CHENNAI: A day after a lull due to the announcement of AMMK leader VK Sasikala’s decision to quit politics, the poll mood at AMMK headquarters in Royapettah picked up on Friday with several workers making a beeline to submit applications for party tickets to contest the April 6 polls.

The AMMK has so far received more than 2000 application forms from the aspirants seeking party MLA tickets. Friday being an auspicious day, the AMMK headquarters saw workers submitting the nomination papers making serpentine queues till evening, said an AMMK source confirming more than 100 nominations had come for the party general secretary TTV Dhinakaran wishing him to contest from different parts of the state.

“The mood at the party office is encouraging and our leader TTV Dhinakaran will continue the fight against the state and central governments and though he is a sitting MLA of R K Nagar I will wish he contests from Anna Nagar in Chennai,” said AMMK Chennai Chennai (west) district secretary Sukumar Babu. Last elections we were forced to contest as independent candidates but now we have got the common pressure cooker symbol and we will be able to create a mark in the upcoming assembly polls, Sukumar said.

Former minister and party heavyweight P Palaniappan had also submitted an application form seeking re-election from the Papireddypatti constituency. AMMK will interview ticket aspirants on March 8 and 9 and the party workers have been instructed to submit the forms before March 7.

The AMMK candidate list will be released by March 10, party sources said. The AMMK will also hold talks with like-minded parties that have agreed to align with the AMMK. During the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, SDPI aligned with AMMK.