DMK Names Marudu Ganesh Again For RK Nagar Bypoll 

Chennai: The DMK today named N Marudu Ganesh as its candidate for the December 21 bypoll to the Dr Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency here, which fell vacant after the demise of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa last year. DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan announced Ganesh's candidature in a party release.

N Marudu Ganesh, alias N M Ganesh, is a journalist- turned-politician. The DMK had fielded him for the bypoll, which was supposed to be held on April 12 earlier. However, it was subsequently cancelled by the Election Commission (EC) over allegations of bribing voters. "Our candidate is in the fray with the support of our allies. We will appeal to other parties as well to extend their support to our nominee," DMK working president M K Stalin told reporters at the party headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, here.

He also exuded confidence that the opposition party would script a "major victory" in the bypoll. The Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) are among the DMK's allies. For the April 12 bypoll, which was cancelled subsequently, the AIADMK (Sasikala faction) had named T T V Dhinakaran as its candidate.

The faction headed by the then rebel AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam had fielded senior leader E Madusudanan and the BJP named veteran Tamil film music director Gangai Amaran as its candidate. While Dhinakaran announced his candidature for the December 21 bypoll yesterday, the EPS-OPS faction of the AIADMK and the BJP are yet to declare the names of their nominees. The EC had yesterday announced that the R K Nagar bypoll would be held on December 21. (PTI)