AIADMK announces candidates for local body bye-elections

DMK however decided to boycott the polls citing paucity of time to select candidates

Ruling AIADMK today announced candidates for the September 18 bye-elections to local bodies, including three Mayor posts even as DMK decided to boycott it citing paucity of time to select candidates.

AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa announced Ganapathy P Rajkumar, E Bhuvaneswari and APR Anthony Gracy as Mayor candidates for Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi Coprorations.

Former Mayors of Tirunelveli and Tuticorin, L Sasikala Pushpa and Vijila Sathyanand had been elected to Rajya Sabha early this year while former Coimbatore Mayor S M Velusamy had quit the post in May.

Jayalalithaa also announced candidates for a number of other posts lying vacant.

Meanwhile, DMK chief M Karunanidhi announced that his party will boycott the by-elections to local bodies, saying there was little time to select candidates.

Nomination of papers started on August 29 with the last date being September 4, 2014 and the State Election Commission should have pondered if there would have been time for the opposition parties to select their candidates.

There were three holidays in between, he said in a statement.