Tamil Maanila Congress today said it would not extend support any candidate in the June 27 bypoll to R K Nagar assembly constituency in Chennai, where Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is contesting.
"TMC has already announced that it will not contest the bypoll and not to support any candidate. The party is gearing up and concentrating on the 2016 assembly polls," TMC president G K Vasan told reporters at nearby Avanashi in Tirupur district.
R K Nagar seat fell vacant on May 17 after AIADMK's sitting MLA P Vetrivel resigned following the acquittal of Jayalalithaa on May 11 by the Karnataka High Court in the disproportionate assets case.
Jayalalithaa is contesting from the seat for her return to the state Assembly as an MLA. She had filed her nomination on June 5.
While DMK, MDMK, VCK and PMK have announced boycotting the boypoll, CPI with the support of CPI(M) has decided to contest, while NDA constituents BJP and DMDK are yet to make up their mind.
On the vexed Cauvery issue, Vasan demanded that the state government take serious efforts to prevent Karnataka from allegedly discharging sewage into the river.
He also urged the Centre to expedite the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union to boost knitwear exports from Tirupur.
Vasan, who was at Avanashi to attend a marriage, rushed back to Chennai to offer his condolences to TNCC president E V K S Elangovan, whose mother and AIADMK leader Sulochana Sampath passed away today.
On November 28 last year, Vasan, a former Union Minister had formally launched his new political party, Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) and billed it as a departure from the traditional high command culture followed in his erstwhile Congress party and flayed its style of functioning.
