THENI: If election is a war of ideologies, yes, a war is on in a family in Aandipatti. It’s not the first time that the brothers Maharajan of DMK, who is the sitting MLA, and his younger sibling, Logirajan of AIADMK are vying with each other for votes. Both of them had contested the Aandipatti Assembly by-election in 2019, with Maharajan emerging victorious by a margin of 12,323.
Andipatti Assembly Constituency is considered one of the significant constituencies in the State, for former chief ministers MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa had contested from the constituency and helped earn AIADMK many a victory.
The constituency was a fortress of AIADMK from 2001 to 2016. In 2016, after the demise of Jayalalithaa, the then sitting MLA Thanga Tamilselvan, rebelled against the AIADMK leadership and later joined AMMK.
Though Tamilselvan contested from the constituency in 2019 by-election, he was defeated. Political pundits say that it’s after a long time that DMK is getting a ticket to contest from Andipatti Assembly constituency.