REFUGEE

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is set to witness a triangular contest as battlelines are drawn for the December 19 byelections for the Tiruchendur and
Vandavasi (reserved) constituencies, with actor Vijayakanth's DMDK announcing its candidates for the two seats on Thursday.

The DMDK has fielded its Tuticorin-south district secretary Gomathy R Ganesan (35) for the Tiruchendur seat and N Janardhanan (40), party's Tiruvannamalai-north disctrict secretary of the volunteer force, for the Vandavasi constituency.

The ruling DMK has already announced the candidature of Anitha' R Radhakrishnan, former AIADMK minister who switched camps recently, for Tiruchendur and J Kamalakannan, the son of DMK MLA SP Jayaraman whose death caused the bypoll in Vandavasi. The main opposition AIADMK, which made it a cakewalk for the DMK-Congress combine by boycotting the previous bypolls held for 5 seats in August, has this time fielded greenhorns Amman T Narayanan and P Munusamy for the two seats.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (CPI), which had decided not to contest the bypolls, on Thursday announced its support to the AIADMK in the byelections. CPI state secretary D Pandian, who called on AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa along with his party colleagues, told reporters that his party decided to support the main opposition party as it chose to contest the elections this time.

MDMK chief Vaiko and leaders of a host of small parties also met the AIADMK chief and pledged their support to her party. Pandian said his CPI(M) counterpart N Varadarajan would call on the AIADMK leader on Friday.

The two Left parties, which contested the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the AIADMK, broke ranks with Jayalalithaa when she called for the boycott of previous byelections. They had explained then that the seat-sharing arrangement with the AIADMK was only for the Lok Sabha polls.

Though the PMK, an erstwhile ally of the AIADMK, has also decided to keep away from next month's by-polls, it is yet to announce its decision on whom to support this time. The DMDK, as usual, has chosen to plough a lonely furrow.

Meantime, Jayalalithaa has appointed party headquarters secretary K A Sengottaiyan and propaganda secretary M Thambidurai, MP, as election in-charge for the Tiruchendur and Vandavasi constituencies respectively.