Ruling party set for twin win: Manickam Tagore

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore on Sunday said candidates from the Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance will win in both constituencies going to bypolls, citing the party's survey results as indicating a favourable outcome.

Speaking to reporters at Sathyamurthy Bhavan after paying floral tributes to freedom fighters Kodikatha Kumaran, VO Chidambaranar and Subramania Siva on their birth anniversaries, Tagore said the opposition parties were campaigning intensively out of fear of defeat.

"Former Chief Ministers Stalin and Edappadi K Palaniswami are going street by street for campaigning only because of the fear of defeat. Even before the election is over, the opposition parties have started lamenting," he said.

Tagore also praised Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's campaign approach, particularly his call for politics without distributing money to voters.

"The new politics put forward by Chief Minister Vijay is that there is no need to give money to voters. His method of directly meeting people by going from street to street is important and appreciable," he said.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president YS Sharmila visited Sathyamurthy Bhavan along with her husband Anil to hand over their daughter's wedding invitation to Manicham Tagore, and also met the media.

Sharmila urged the people of Tamil Nadu to raise their voice against what she described as "vote chori", stressing that the right to vote was a fundamental right of every citizen.

"The right to vote is very important and personal to every citizen, including the poorest of the poor. This is what makes India a democratic country, " she said.

Alleging that the Election Commission was being controlled, Sharmila claimed that 14 orders had been passed without the consent of all commissioners. She reiterated the Congress' demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

"We will continue to fight for the people of this country under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi," she said.