Returning Officer (RO) by the Election Commission (EC). The chairman of the presidium of the party, A. Tamilmagan Hussain.
Earlier, ousted coordinator O. The Panneerselvam-led faction fielded its candidate B.K. Senthil Murugan, who filed his nomination last Friday. A communication sent by Manish Kumar, Under Secretary in the Election Commission to the RO, cited the Supreme Court’s interim order issued last week. The order authorized Mr. Hussain to handle all official communications on behalf of the party for the “limited purpose” of fielding candidates for the bypoll. The communication mentions that Mr. Hussain had submitted Form A and B (which are to be submitted to the RO to certify that the candidate in question is the genuine candidate of the party).
The development came after Mr Hussain submitted the document to the Election Commission in New Delhi.
Mr. Thennarasu was handed over to AIADMK interim general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the candidate of his camp. The by-election is to be held on February 27.
Rajya Sabha member and former Law Minister C.V. Shanmugam and former MLA IS Inbadurai, President of the Presidium of the AIADMK, told reporters in New Delhi after meeting Election Commission officials that most of the members of the General Council have voted as party candidates. Mr. Thennarasu was “chosen”.
Mr Shanmugam said 2,501 of the 2,665 members of the general council voted for Mr Thanasarasu and “not a single vote was cast against him”. Of the remaining members, the term of two had expired as a result of the expiration of their term in the legislature. Two others had left the party, while 15 members had died. Besides this, 145 members did not send their replies.
Mr. Shanmugam reiterated that the President of the Presidium had sent a circular to all the members of the General Council. Communication was sent through email, social media and direct messengers as well as by speed post and registered post.
Explaining the latest move by Panneerselvam’s camp, deputy coordinator and a former minister KP Krishnan said the decision has been taken as his camp has emerged “victorious” from several measures taken. “We want to ensure the success of the ‘two leaves’ symbol left behind by party founder MG Ramachandran and his successor Jayalalithaa,” he said after attending a meeting chaired by Panneerselvam. Vaithilingam and JCD Prabhakar.
Last week, BJP leaders met Mr. Palaniswami as well as Mr. Panneerselvam separately and asked them to work in a “united AIADMK”. The national party later expressed its preference for Mr. Panneerselvam to withdraw its candidate from the fray. On Sunday, Mr. Panneerselvam’s followers objected to the way Mr. Hussain sought the general council members’ opinion on the party’s candidate. He complained that the Supreme Court’s interim order in the matter had been “violated”.