Dhinakaran to contest RK seat

The battle lines were drawn for the high-stakes bypoll to the RK Nagar constituency in the state capital on Wednesday with the ruling AIADMK fielding its powerful deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran while the Opposition DMK preferred to field a local party functionary.

The April 12 byelection was necessitated by J. Jayalalithaa’s demise.

In what is expected to be a political potboiler, the bypoll will see an intense four-cornered contest with late Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar announcing her candidature and former Chief Minister O. Panneer-selvam’s camp also set to field a nominee.

With the AIADMK votes set to split three ways and all the three groups staking claim to late Jayalalithaa’s legacy in a constituency she represented twice, the DMK has fielded the ‘son of the soil’ Marudhu Ganesh.

Mr Ganesh, who practices at the George Town court while residing in RK Nagar, also doubles up as a party worker and journalist. The DMK fielded him since he is well versed with the problems faced by the people of the constituency and is said to be popular among the cadres.

The bypolls will test the popularity of the onemonth old Edappadi K Palanisami-led AIADMK government since this is the first election the ruling party is set to face after Jayalalithaa’s demise on December 5, 2016.

“I will win by a margin of 50,000 votes,” Mr Dhinakaran said.

Mr Dhinakaran himself jumping into the fray in Dr RK Nagar constituency has further raised the stakes since he is virtually the no. 1 in the AIADMK in the absence of its jailed general secretary V.K. Sasikala.