Chennai: Spicing up the electoral battle in Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency further, the rebel AIADMK camp led O. Panneerselvam on Thursday fielded party veteran and strong man E. Madhusudhanan against official nominee T. T. V. Dinakaran.

Panneerselvam, who also exuded confidence that the Election Commission would allot the party’s ‘two leaves’ symbol since they represent the “original AIADMK”, announced Madhusudhanan’s name for the prestigious battle on April 12.

The choice of Madhusudhanan, who has been residing in North Chennai for the past 50 years and has excellent rapport with AIADMK workers and public alike, is expected to make the battle tougher for Dhinakaran, who is being viewed as an “outsider.” DMK has also fielded a local functionary Marudhu Ganesh. Besides Madhusudhanan, Deepa Jayakumar and the DMK candidate, the AIADMK will have to fight the public perception against it in the wake of V K Sasikala’s conviction in the DA case.

Though Madhusudhanan has won from Dr R K Nagar constituency only once in 1991, he has been working for the AIADMK in North Chennai, particularly in the assembly segment, ever since late MGR launched the party in 1972.

A veteran of many political battles, Madhusudhanan was handpicked by MGR as the powerful dt secretary of North Chennai to make inroads into arch-rival DMK’s vote bank and was made Presidium Chairman of the AIADMK by late Jayalalithaa. Interestingly, the DMK and AIADMK managers in the constituency - P K Sekar Babu and P Vetrivel — were followers of Madhusudhanan.

“I am sure to win this elections. I am the son of the soil and I know the length and breadth of the constituency. I will defeat Dhinakaran decisively in the battle for dharma,” the AIADMK veteran said.

DMK asks EC to transfer George as CoP
DMK on Thursday knocked at the doors of the EC seeking transfer of Chennai Police Commissioner S George till the bypolls to Dr R K Nagar is over, alleging that he was supporting AIADMK general secretary V. K. Sasikala with an eye on the DGP post.