CHENNAI: On the day before the window for filing poll nominations closes, the Congress announced former Kancheepuram MP P Viswanathan as its candidate for the Melur Assembly constituency (general) in Madurai on Sunday.
So far, Viswanathan is the only Scheduled Caste candidate to be nominated to contest from a general constituency. Bhim Rao from the CPM and P Dhansingh from the AIADMK, elected from the Maduravoyal and Pallavaram seats respectively in 2011, were the last SC candidates elected from a general constituency in Tamil Nadu.
The announcement came hours after Viswanathan met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at Puducherry on Sunday morning. On Friday, after much deliberations, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had announced its candidates for 27 of the 28 constituencies it was allocated in TN as part of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance.
However, it had put off announcing the candidate for Melur due to an internal rift between party MPs over allocating the seat. With the party high command unwilling to allocate the seat to any of the feuding factions, as per Congress sources, the party was, till Saturday, looking to swap the seat with the DMK’s allies.
Ex-MP got ticket based on LS performance
“However, in a last minute move, Viswanathan, who was elected from the Kancheepuram parliamentary constituency (SC) in 2009, approached the party leadership seeking a ticket to contest from Melur. The party high command allocated him the seat after looking at his performance during his tenure as MP,” one party source said.
Kharge is said to have considered Viswanathan for the seat, as prominent Congress leader and former home minister P Kakkan had been elected to the erstwhile Madras State Assembly from Melur (SC) in 1957.
The delay in the announcement was a cause of concern for alliance leader DMK, as the party’s deputy general secretary and Thoothukudi MP Kanimozhi had completed her campaign in Madurai, and DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin was campaigning in Madurai on Sunday. However, sources close to the DMK leadership said, the party did not want to interfere in the Congress’s internal issues.
Viswanathan has held the position of AICC secretary from 2009 to 2014, with responsibilities including oversight of Telangana and other states. As an MP, he maintained a Parliamentary attendance of about 87%, participated in about 38 debates and raised 658 questions between 2009 and 2014.
P Kakkan’s 1957 win
Viswanathan is said to have been considered for the seat by Kharge, as Congress leader P Kakkan had been elected to the erstwhile Madras State Assembly from Melur (SC) in 1957