Chennai: AMMK founder and R K Nagar MLA TTV Dhinakaran on Thursday announced that he would contest from Kovilpatti constituency in the southern Virudhunagar district in the 6 April Assembly polls.
Releasing the second list of 50 candidates for the elections, he said he would be contesting from the Kovilpatti seat.
Dhinakaran, who is the nephew of ousted AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, a close aide of late J Jayalalithaa, entered the State Assembly for the first time by winning from the high-profile R K Nagar set in the city.
R K Nagar was twice represented by Jayalalithaa, before Dhinakaran contested it in the bypoll caused by her death in December 2016 and won by a margin of more than 40,000 votes, surpassing Jayalalithaa’s margin of 39,545 votes in the May 2016 Assembly polls.
He is the first independent MLA since the 2001 win of M Appavu from Radhapuram.
In the bypoll held almost an year after her death, Dhinakaran had secured more votes than all 58 other candidates put together and surpassed Jayalalithaa’s winning margin by 1,162 votes.
The ruling AIADMK finished second, retained security deposit, while 57 other candidates, including the DMK’s Marudhu Ganesh, forfeited their deposits.
Sources said despite all these, Dhinakaran decided to contest from Kovilpatti because of the present mood of voters in R K Nagar and the support he enjoys from some sections of voters in the southern constituency.
In the second list for this elections, Dhinakaran also allotted a seat to sitting Sattur AIADMK MLA Raja Varman, who miffed over denial of seat by the ruling party met him earlier in the day and he was immediately rewarded with a ticket.
He has fielded Pookadai Sekar against Chief Minister and AIADMK joint cordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami at Edappadi and pitted M Muthusamy against Deputy CM and coordinator O Panneerselvam in Bodi seat, besides fielding candidates against the AIADMK heavyweights.