COIMBATORE: As many as 18 candidates from Karur district have filed their election nomination from Coimbatore South, where former DMK minister V Senthil Balaji is also set to contest.
These nominations by Karur natives have drawn attention as Senthil Balaji shifted his base from Karur and is contesting in Coimbatore for the first time. Interestingly, most are advocates and many of their social media accounts are private. A total of 61 nominations have been filed here.
A candidate, K Vijayan from Uppidamangalam in Karur district, filed his nomination as Independent. However, photos on his X account shows he is closely associated with Senthil Balaji. When TNIE contacted Vijayan, he said, “I wanted to contest from there as it is a VIP constituency. There is no other reason.”
When asked if he had previously contested, he replied in the negative. The candidates in question are KS Rajagopal, P Kathiravan, K Vijayan, J Suryakumar, K Rajapandian, S Sathishkumar, J Praveenkumar, G Babu, L Hakkim, M Muhamed Ismail, N Abilazan, T Vigneshwaran, P Manoj, L Stephenraj, P Yuvaraj, K Dineshkumar, P Palanivel and M Thirugnanam.
Dineshkumar said, “I have no specific reason. I wish to contest to check how many votes I can get.” Stephenraj and Praveenkumar also said there was no reason for filing nomination.
An AIADMK functionary, who worked as an agent for the party for many elections, said, “If 18 candidates from Senthil Balaji’s district have filed nominations, it might be his strategy to make them to stay in the constituency till polling.”