Denied ticket, Thanjavur DMK man, wife, son to contest as independents

A DMK functionary and a long time councillor, who got frustrated after the party failed to allot him a seat in the upcoming urban body polls for the Thanjavur Corporation Council and his family members filed nominations as independent candidates for three wards on Thursday.

Sources said Selvakumar (54), former Thanjavur Corporation Council DMK member from Ward 44, who has been residing in Vandikara Street in the town, was expecting a ticket from the party to contest in the upcoming urban body polls. During the recent delimitation, Ward 44 was divided into Ward numbers 32, 33 and 34. So, Selvakumar sought a seat from the party to contest in ward number 32 and submitted an application. He was confident of getting a party ticket and commenced election works well in advance.

However, Selvakumar was shocked after seeing the list of candidates released by the party headquarters as he was denied a ticket. A disappointed Selvakumar, who did not want to look back, decided to contest in the ward as an independent candidate.

Apart from this, he wanted to field his wife Vanitha (52) and son Chakravarthy (30) in the adjacent wards - 33 and 34 - that were once the part of combined Ward number 44.

On Thursday, all the three came to the Thanjavur Corporation office and filed their nominations as independent candidates.

After filing their papers, Selvakumar told the reporters that the residents from his ward had already wanted him to contest in the election. “Since I am familiar and had brought various developments to the ward, voters from our ward have extended their support and we all three will certainly win with the support of the residents,” Selvakumar said. However, he refused to comment on the party’s decision.