BJP fields Karu Nagarajan in RK Nagar

With the national party entering the fray, the by-election would be a five-cornered fight among the DMK, AIADMK, dissident leader TTV Dinakaran, BJP and Naam Thamizhar party. Even while most of the anti-saffron parties had come together to rally behind the principal opposition DMK, alleging that the AIADMK had become a puppet of the BJP, the announcement from Kamalalayam would mean that the state’s ruling party would face attacks from several directions.

However, AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan downplayed the BJP’s capacity to erode the AIADMK votes in the constituency and said the BJP is not a force to reckon with in the state. He said the saffron party’s vote share in RK Nagar is negligible.

However, the BJP had fielded a candidate from the Nadar community, which has a significant presence in the constituency. Nagarajan had defected from actor Sarathkumar’s Samathuva Makkal Katchi and contested in 2009 Parliament elections from Tirunelveli, polling 39,997 votes. He was fielded from Mylapore in the 2016 Assembly elections, when he secured 11,720 votes. Nagarajan will be under pressure to show a better performance than Dinakaran and Naam Thamizhar party in the prestigious contest. The BJP, which is facing charges of helping the ruling party to get the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol distanced itself from the AIADMK through its by-poll announcement. A boycott of polls could have raised charges of the saffron party lending indirect support to AIADMK candidate E Madhusudhanan.

Nearly, all the anti-saffron parties including Congress, Left parties and VCK had announced their support to DMK candidate Marudhu Ganesh.

The MDMK had said that it would announce its decision on the by-election after a meeting of office bearers on December 3. The PMK and DMDK had boycotted the bypoll.

A day after filing nominations, Madhusudhanan and his rival Marudhu Ganesh started their poll campaign on Saturday. Naam Thamizhar candidate Kalaikottudhayam too began a door to door campaign.