Thirumavalavan to contest on own symbol in Chidambaram

Chennai: Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol Thirumavalavan will contest the Chidambaram Lok Sabha seat as part of the DMK-led front in Tamil Nadu. Thirumavalavan said he would seek a symbol for his contest, while his colleague D Ravikumar, former MLA, would test his fortunes in the Villupuram constituency, contesting on the DMK’s Rising Sun symbol.

The DMK had apparently been insisting that the VCK contest the two seats on the DMK symbol in order to boost victory prospects. However, the VCK will use the DMK symbol in only one constituency, in order to maximize victory prospects.
 
Thirumavalavan was elected to parliament in 2009 from the Chidambaram constituency, but lost to the AIADMK in 2014.

VCK would contest six LS constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and three in Kerala independently.
In Andhra Pradesh, N.K. Jacob Vidyasagar is seeking victory from Guntur, P.T.M. Sivaprasad from Chittoor, George Bankari from Visakhapatnam, Murugesan Prabhu from Tirupati, Bondalapalli Chandrasekar from Rajampet, and Ramaji Immanuel from Kadapa.

In Kerala, M. Selvaraj will seek election from Idukki, Jeevan K. Vijayan from Kottayam and lawyer K.R. Meena would be contesting from Kollam.

Alleging that the Election Commission was delaying the allotment of an independent symbol for a month without citing any reason, Mr. Thirumavalavan said the symbols sought by the party was allotted to others.

“Earlier the VCK asked for ring, then diamond, then jackfruit symbols, but all of them were allotted to the others. Now they have asked another list of symbols. Time to begin campaign is nearing,” he said.