CHENNAI: AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Friday said that he would announce the party’s decision on Erode East Constituency by-poll on January 27. He continued that the party is firm on defeating the DMK and it has been making certain political movies to achieve their goal.

“We never backed from contesting any polls and even contested in by-poll in R K Nagar Constituency and defeated then ruling AIADMK party candidate, while the candidate of then opposition party, DMK, forfeited deposit. So, we never hesitated in contesting the poll. In fact, our party functionaries and cadres are expressing their views in favour of contesting the poll,” Dhinakaran told media persons after holding talks with party functionaries at the party office in Chennai.

Rejecting the theory that the by-poll would be cake-walk for the ruling party and its allies, he reiterated his victory in a free election symbol in Decemver 2017 by-poll to R K Nagar constituency. He continued that if the opposition parties are determined enough to work hard, it is not a big task to defeat the candidate of the ruling party or its alliance party.

Taking a dig at the factionalism in the AIADMK party, Dhinakaran said they would lose the ‘Two-Leaves’ symbol if Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam teams continued to fight each other.

Without the symbol, they were insignificant, he said, adding, “Palaniswami (EPS) is sitting as the leader of opposition because of the ‘Two-Leaves’. After Amma (JJayalalithaa), the symbol is the leader of the party.” He continued in the same vein and said that EPS unleashed his money power to hijack the party and its authority. Now, the two factions were fighting out in the court over the leadership issue.

On the One Nation One Election, he said it was practically not viable in a democracy. “A pragmatic approach is necessary in such critical issues,” he opined.

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