Hectic lobbying in TN Congress for nine LS seats

Chennai, March 19 (IANS) The Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu are lobbying hard for their candidature for the nine Lok Sabha seats that have been allocated to it in the INDIA bloc.

The DMK and Congress finalised their seat-sharing arrangement on Monday. Out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Congress will contest nine seats. However, the Arani, Theni and Tiruchi seats were taken by the DMK and instead the party allocated Myladuthurai, Tirunelveli and Cuddalore seats to the Congress.

The Congress party will be replacing the Kanyakumari sitting MP, Vijay Vasanth with a Christian face and former Tamil Nadu Minority commission chairman, Peter Alphonse is the likely replacement. Vasanth's name is being seriously considered for the Tirunelveli seat.

Congress sources told IANS that sitting MP's JyothiMani from Karur, Manickam Tagore from Virudhunagar and Karthi Chidambaram from Sivaganga will contest from their own seats.

The sitting Congress MP from Krishnagiri Dr.Chellakumar is facing stiff opposition from the local DMK leaders. According to senior Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu, Chellakumar is being opposed by local Congress leadership also. However, party general secretary (organisation ) K.C. Venugopal will support his candidature, the sources added.

Veteran Congress leader and former state president of the party, Thirunavakkarsu is likely to contest from Mayiladuthurai seat and strong lobbying is going on for him with the state president K. Selvaperunthagai supporting his candidature.

The immediate past president of the state Congress, K.S. Alagiri is lobbying for his candidature from Cuddalore seat where he was an MLA earlier.

With hectic lobbying taking place for the nine seats in Tamil Nadu, it is a tough situation for the Congress state and central leadership to finalise the candidates.

Tamil Nadu will be going to polls on April 19 in the first phase and the nominations can be submitted from March 20. The last date of submission of nominations is March 27 and the last date for withdrawal is on March 30. The parties will get only 17 days for campaigning.