82 candidates in fray at RK Nagar by-election

As the scrutinisation process came to an end on Friday, nominations of 82 out of the 127 filed have been accepted by the officials.

Nominations filed by AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma (Panneerselvam's camp) candidate E Madhusudhanan, AIADMK Amma (Sasikala's camp) candidate TTV Dinakaran, BJP candidate Gangai Amaran, DMK candidate Maruthu Ganesh, and Jayalalithaa's niece, Deepa Jayakumar, were all accepted.

But that of Sarathkumar's AISMK candidate Antony Xavier was rejected. It is learnt that Dinakaran is going to rent a house in the constituency for the campaign.

Dinakaran’s tour began with a visit to the Murugan temple on the street; he emerged wearing a white cricket umpire’s hat. Women constantly approached Dinakaran’s vehicle with arathi plates, applying vermillion to his forehead.

Senior leaders of the AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) headed by former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Friday went on a door-to-door campaign to urge voters to vote against the “usurping of the AIADMK by a single family” and provide “justice for ‘Amma’s death” in the April 12 byelection.

Flanked by seniors, Madhusudhanan, the local strongman, filed his papers on Thursday.

Donning a 'hat', Dinakaran was confident that his faction would sweep the poll. "People of Tamil Nadu know how a conspiracy was hatched to freeze our two-leaves symbol. After my win in R K Nagar, I will secure the symbol with the support of 1.5 crore cadres," he said.