LS polls: Congress announces candidate for Tirunelveli Parliament seat; Vilvancode Assembly

CHENNAI: Ending days of suspense, the Congress national high command finally announced candidates for Tirunelveli Parliament and Vilavancode Assembly constituency on Monday.

AICC general secretary K C Venugopal announced advocate C Robert Bruce as candidate for Tirunelveli Parliamentary constituency.

Robert Bruce is one of the state vice presidents of the Tamil Nadu Congress unit.

His candidature was announced barely a few hours before Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin visited Tirunelveli to address a massive rally in support of the Congress candidates in Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari.

Robert Bruce would take on BJP's senior leader Pon Radhakrishnan and AIADMK's prof Basiliyan Nasareth in Kanyakumari.

The AICC high command also announced Ms Tharahai Cuthbert as its candidate for Vilavancode Assembly by poll which was necessitated by the resignation of S Vijayadharani who quit the party and joined the BJP.

A familiar face in the Kanyakumari unit of Congress, PhD-holder Tharahai has actively worked for the party during the 2014 and 2019 Parliamentary polls.

Her father Cuthbert has also served as Congress district president in Kanyakumari.

Surprisingly, when most of the candidates in the poll fray filed their nominations for the April 19 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress did not announce its candidates for Mayiladuthurai constituency till Monday evening.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K Selvaperunthagai issued 'A' and 'B' forms to its candidates Sasikanth Senthil (Tiruvallur), S Jothimani (Karur), K Vishnu Prasad (Cuddalore) and Vijay Vasanth (Kanyakumari) at party state headquarters Sathyamurthy Bhavan.

Selvaperunthagai also took and introduced the candidates to Chief Minister Stalin at the latter's residence.