Vellore

At present 31 candidates are in the fray as on Friday for the August 5 poll.

The final number of candidates will be known only after July 22, the last day for withdrawal of nominations. It may be recalled that a total of 50 nominations were filed for the election to the constituency before Thursday’s deadline.

However, the process witnessed both AIADMK and DMK vociferously demanding that the nomination of the other be rejected, but to no avail. The nominations of both AC Shanmugam and DMK’s Kathir Anand were accepted.

Anticipating trouble, the DMK was out in full strength with Kathir Anand being accompanied by DMK treasurer and Katpadi MLA Duraimurugan, Rajya Sabha MP and High Court lawyer Wilson and former Vellore MLA C Gnanasekaran, who recently crossed over to the DMK, in lawyer’s attire. MLAs P Karthikeyan and AP Nandakumar were also present. Around 10 AIADMK members, led by district treasurer M Moorthy and deputy district secretary AR Rajendran accompanied AC Shanmugam, while he was campaigning in Gudiyattam.

Makkal Sakthi Katchi state president ML Ravi and DMK members first demanded that Shanmugam’s nomination be rejected as he was contesting under the AIADMK’s Two Leaves symbol while he was the founder of the New Justice Party. But AIADMK members said Shanmugam was an AIADMK member.

Bishop Godfrey Nobel of the All India Democracy Protection Party demanded rejection of Kathir Anand’s nomination as cash being recovered from those close to his father had led to the poll being cancelled. But he was shouted down by DMK members.

When Nobel came out and said the same to the media, he was manhandled by a group, which brought police to the scene to control the situation. At one stage, Wilson was seen cautioning Collector Shanmugasundaram that the poll would be cancelled if Kathir Anand’s nomination was rejected.

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