AIADMK supporters protest against BJP leader's candidature

The supporters of AIADMK MLA Amman Arjunan staged protests and blocked roads in Coimbatore after the party allocated the seat to its ally, the BJP.

Mahila Morcha national president Vanathi Srinivasan is likely to be the BJP candidate from the South Coimbatore seat.

AIADMK ward unit secretaries of Ramanathapuram, Ukkadam, Sungam, Gandhipuram and Flower market areas of Coimbatore, led the protests along with a galaxy of supporters, including party workers and cadres.

K.Selvaraju, AIADMK functionary told IANS, "Vanathi Srinivasan may be the national president of the BJP women's wing but we cannot compromise on the seat being given to her under the AIADMK seat sharing agreement. We will continue with our protests till this decision is revoked".

Srinivasan was not available for comment.

Meanwhile, more AIADMK supporters took to the streets in a few other constituencies where the sitting MLAs were denied seats. Supporters of S.Semmalai, who won from Mettur constituency of Salem district in 2016 took to the streets after he was denied a ticket.

In Villupuram district also the party supporters led by its district leaders, conducted protest marches after the party announced the candidature of M.Senthil Kumar for the Kallakurichi constituency in the district. The cadres are demanding to give the seat to former MLA Azhaguvel Babu. The protests which commenced after the announcement of the list of 171 candidates on Wednesday evening continued on Thursday morning.

The AIADMK has fielded maximum a number of candidates from the "Gounder" community in Western Tamil Nadu and had chosen not to provide much seats to the BJP in this region as the party feels that the community would support it as the Chief Minister K.Palaniswami is from the community and the first "Gounder" to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

--IANS

aal/dpb