The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : DMK expands panel for two byelections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

DMK expands panel for two byelections

Tamil Nadu Bureau

Union Ministers, elected representatives drafted; withdrawals till 3 p.m. on April 28

CHENNAI: Signalling the importance it attaches to the byelections, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has expanded the coordination committees it constituted for the two constituencies, which will go to the polls on May 14.

After naming its top party functionaries to head the two coordination committees, comprising of nominees from the headquarters and the local units, the main Opposition party has now drafted its Union Ministers, some Members of Parliament and legislators to strengthen them.

Union Ministers Dayanidhi Maran, S.S. Palanimanickam, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan and S. Raghupathy have been appointed to the Kancheepuram committee, while Ministers T.R. Baalu, A. Raja and K. Venkatapathy have been included in the panel to work in the Gummidipoondi segment.

The Kancheepuram panel, with top leaders M.K. Stalin and Durai Murugan as coordinators, will now have 19 members. This includes party MPs and MLAs. The Gummidipoondi committee will now be 20 strong.

"Extra drive"

Though the party had earlier appointed more compact panels to oversee the election campaign and related work in the two areas, it has gone in for a revamp and raised its level to provide that "extra drive" to the cadres, according to a senior party functionary.

This comes as a clear response to the proposed campaign by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the aggressive approach of the ruling All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to the byelections. Now that the contest will be between the two arch Dravidian rivals, both parties appear intent on proving their strength on the ground.

Indications are that the electioneering will gain momentum from May Day. The Election Commission has already sent out a clear signal that the monitoring exercise will be as strict as any other election — both in terms of the model code of conduct and in relation to expenditure.

After scrutiny of nominations on Tuesday...

All nominations accepted

Nomination papers filed by an independent and four `dummy' candidates were rejected by the Election Returning Officer (ERO) for Kancheepuram constituency on Tuesday.

For the Gummidipoondi segment, all the 22 nominations, including that of `dummy' candidates, were accepted by the ERO. After scrutinising the nomination papers in the presence of Election Observer (general) for Kancheepuram, Jiwesh Nandan, the ERO and Revenue Divisional Officer, K. Anbazhagan told reporters that nomination filed by an independent, M. Kandasamy Singh, was rejected as he had not furnished his asset and liability form and certified voter-list copy to substantiate his citizenship.

Four other nominations, filed by `dummy' candidates of the AIADMK, DMK, New Justice Party and Dalit Panthers of India were `automatically' rejected as the nominations of the official candidates of these parties were accepted, the RDO said. However, at Tiruvallur the ERO for Gummidipoondi segment and Special Deputy Collector (grievance), S.P. Pitchammal announced that all the nominations including those of `dummy' candidates of leading political parties were accepted. Scrutiny of papers for Gummidipoondi constituency was held in the presence of the Election Observer (general), Satrapati Sivaji, official sources said.

Withdrawal of nominations would be entertained till 3 p.m. on April 28, after which the exercise of allotting symbols to independents would be taken up, sources added.

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