By IANS,
Chennai : Thirteen candidates, including six independents, are in the fray in the Sankarankoil by-poll to be held March 18, the Election Commission said Saturday.
“Out of the 13 validly nominated candidates, none of the candidate has withdrawn his nomination today (Saturday), being the last date for withdrawal,” said chief electoral officer Praveen Kumar, in a statement issued here.
The contest is going to be a five cornered contest with AIADMK, DMK, DMDK, the Bharatiya Janata Party and MDMK being the major parties in the arena.
The by-poll is crucial as it is the first election after the ruling AIADMK parted with its assembly election allies like DMDK, two communist parties and others and the first poll after the government jacked up the bus fares and milk prices.
The constituency in has over 200,000 voters.
The by-poll is necessitated by the death of sitting member, AIADMK’s C.Karuppasamy, in October due to ill health.
The AIADMK has fielded V. Muthuselvi while DMK and DMDK have pitted J.Jawahar Suryakumar and K.Muthukumar respectively against her.
MDMK which boycotted the assembly polls last year has fielded T.Sadan Thirumalaikumar while the BJP’s candidate is L. Murugan.