COIMBATORE/CHENNAI: AIADMK interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday formed a 111-member election working committee headed by former minister KA Sengottaiyan for the Erode East by-election. The committee comprises former ministers and sitting and former MPs and MLAs.
As part of choosing a candidate for the bypoll and framing other election strategies, EPS held a meeting with the functionaries of AIADMK and allies at Villarasampatti. According to sources, EPS may select either former minister KV Ramalingam or former Erode East MLA KS Thennarasu, who had held the MLA post twice from the constituency.
He had expressed his willingness to contest from the constituency in 2021 but the seat was allocated to TMC. Since KV Ramalingam’s name has been included in the working committee, Thennarasu could be announced as the candidate.
According to party sources, EPS consulted with party functionaries and alliance parties primarily about election strategy, especially booth-level supervision. EPS is said to have chalked out a plan to depute 18 members—10 members from AIADMK and 8 from alliance parties—for each of the 238 polling booths.
Before the meeting, EPS went to his family temple, Appathal temple, at Nasiyanur. After the meeting, he attended a party functionary’s wedding at Kumarapalayam in Erode and from there, he went to Salem. He would return to Erode on Friday and announce the party’s candidate, sources said.