MDMK to contest on DMK's Rising Sun Symbol
Just 25 days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, MDMK, a constituent of the DMK led alliance, which initially rejected the latter’s appeal to contest on the rising sun symbol, has made a u-turn and declared that it would do so.
In a meeting held in Modakuruchi on Sunday night, DMK led alliance MDMK candidate for Erode constituency, Ganesha Murthi said that the party would be contesting on the rising sun symbol.
MDMK candidate Ganesha Murthi ‘s decision was prompted by the Election Commission of India’s delay in allocating a symbol for the party. “If the election commission allocates the symbol in the coming weeks, it would be difficult to take the symbol to the voters before we go to the polls,” sources in the MDMK said.
It is not just the MDMK that has come to such a decision, even VCK waited until the last week and announced that its Villupuram constituency candidate D Ravikumar would contest on the DMK’s rising sun symbol. However, the party chief Thol. Thirumavalavan would contest on the pot symbol, allocated to it by the ECI, in the Chidambaram constituency.
Explaining the reason for fielding two candidates from the same party on different symbols, Thirumavalavan blamed the poll panel for the delay in finalising allocation of a symbol for his party.
“We approached the election commission with different symbols five times only to get rejected. Now, if the ECI allocates a symbol in the coming days, it would be difficult for the party candidate in Villupuram to familiarise the voters with it,” he said a week ago.
“But, for me, as I have been contesting in Chidambaram since 1999, people in the constituency know me well and it would be easy for me to reach out to the voters using the new symbol,” Thirumavalavan added.
While national parties including the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress would be going to the polls with their own symbols, Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi’s AKP Chinraj, contesting in the Namakkal constituency, would fight on the DMK’s symbol.
