In TN, Sasikala's group to contest as AIADMK Amma while Panneerselvam camp will call itself AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi)
Party general secretary VK Sasikala-led faction's TTV Dinakaran and former chief minister O. Panneerselvam-led rebel group's senior leader E. Madhusudhanan on Thursday filed their nominations for the April 12 by-poll for the RK Nagar Assembly constituency which was represented by late Jayalalithaa.
The Sasikala group will contest the poll under the name 'AIADMK Amma' with hat as its symbol while the rival camp will be known as 'AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma)' and will be contesting under electric post symbol. On Wednesday, the Election Commission had frozen the AIADMK's 'two leaves' election symbol and had barred both groups from using the party name - AIADMK.
Dinakaran, nephew of Sasikala, filed his nomination wearing his faction's new symbol which, according to him, will remind the voters of party founder MG Ramachandran. "We will win the elections with this hat symbol and get back our "two leaves" symbol," he told reporters after filing his nomination in RK Nagar.
Madhusudhanan, who hails from RK Nagar, said that people wanted the rule of O. Panneerselvam in the state as he had been working for their welfare. "We are going to win this election. Our fight is to end the family rule in the AIADMK," he said.
With March 23 being the last day for filing nominations, Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Jayakumar and BJP's candidate music composer Gangai Amaran, also filed their papers. "Definitely, a victory in this poll will create a history in my (political) life", she said. Noting that AIADMK needed a good leadership, Deepa said the cadres of the party were sure that only she can take the party on the path shown by Jayalalithaa.
After Gangai Amaran, who claimed that Rajinikanth invited him and wished him success, the actor ended the speculation by tweeting that he did not support anyone in the election. Asked about Tamil superstar Rajinikanth's comments that he supports "no one" in the fray for the by-election, she said that the meeting between Gangai Amaran and the actor a few days ago was only to seek the latter's "blessings". "When Gangai Amaran met him (Rajinikanth) he only sought his blessings. According to us, our hero is Narendra Modi and Amit Shah", Deepa added.
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