Tamil Maanila Congress gives up Erode East constituency for AIADMK

Vasan said the TMC had arrived at the decision after considering the welfare of the people of the state. He also appealed to his cadre to cooperate with the party’s allies in the election campaign.

The byelection to the Erode East constituency was necessitated by the death of Congress MLA Thirumagan Everaa, son of former Union minister EVKS Elangovan and great grandson of social reformer ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy.

The schedule

The Election Commission of India had, on 18 January, announced the Assembly election dates for three Northeast states — Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya — apart from the byelection in the Erode East constituency.

Nominations to contest in the byelection would be accepted till 31 January. The last day of the scrutiny of the nominations will be 18 February.

The election would be held on 27 February and the counting of votes will take place on 2 March.

In the last election, the TMC candidate M Yuvaraja contested on the AIADMK’s Two Leaves symbol and lost to the Congress candidate, the late Thirumagan, by 8,904 votes. Yuvaraja had secured 58,396 votes.