PUDUCHERRY: The ruling Congress will field former MLA A John Kumar for Kamaraj Nagar bypoll on October 21. This was announced by AICC general secretary (in-charge of Puducherry) Mukul Wasnik on Saturday. Kumar will file nomination papers on Monday. The contest is likely to be between two ex-MLAs - John Kumar and A Nehru of the All India NR Congress.
Though the AINRC is yet to formally announce its candidate, sources in the party said it was only because Nehru wanted to contest the seat that party founder N Rangasamy went and met AIADMK leadership in Chennai and got the seat allotted to them. He won the 2016 Assembly elections from Nellithoppe constituency. But, he later resigned to help Chief Minister V Narayansamy contest and become a member of the territorial Assembly. Narayansamy contested the by-election from Nellithoppe and won.
Trouble in alliance
However, there seems to be more trouble for the AINRC with allies BJP and AIADMK upset with it. The BJP had almost finalised its candidate — R Senthil, son of former MLA Ramanathan and brother of former Lok Sabha member R Radhakrishnan. The AINRC, which initially showed little interest in contesting, changed its mind in the eleventh hour, said State BJP chief V Saminathan. The BJP has developed its organisation and built up a membership of 3,000 in the constituency with a support base of 10,000 to 15,000 voters. The party has a good chance of winning, claimed Saminathan.
The local unit of the BJP has communicated this to the party leadership through Mahesh Giri. Meanwhile, AIADMK MLA Vaiyapuri Manikandan said in a statement that Nehru, in violation of coalition dharma, had started campaigning in Kamaraj Nagar without bothering about alliance partners. The AIADMK was ready to work for the victory of the alliance, but Nehru’s attitude has hurt the sentiments of party workers.