CHENNAI: A total of 49 candidates are in the fray for the bypolls to the Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended at 3 pm on Saturday. While 27 candidates are contesting in Madurantakam, 22 candidates are in the fray in Dharapuram constituency.
In both constituencies, the ruling TVK, DMK, AIADMK, CPI and the CPM are contesting apart from Independents. While 57 nominations were accepted as valid, eight nominations have been withdrawn.
According to the ECI website, there are 317 star campaigners from various political parties. TVK leaders include Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, Aadhav Arjuna, K A Sengottaiyan, N Anand and A Rajmohan. MDMK leader Vaiko, VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan, TNCC president B Manickam Tagore, and IUML leaders K M Kader Mohideen and A M Shahjahan are among campaigners for their front.
There are 40 star campaigners from the AIADMK, including Edappadi K Palaniswami. Dissident leaders C Ve Shanmugam, SP Velumani, Natham R Viswanthan, K P Anbalagan and K C Veeramani have been left out in the list. DMK leaders, including its president M K Stalin, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, A Raja and E V Velu will campaign for their party candidates.