CHENNAI: The joyous scenes at the fishermen dominated Thiruvanmiyur Kuppam, part of the newly carved out division (181) in the expanded Chennai Corporation, did not last long. Within 48 hours of announcing the candidate, fisherwoman P Kalaivani, the ruling AIADMK changed the candidate and gave the seat to another person.Though the fishing community in the locality feels it was up to the party to decide its candidates for the civic polls in every division, they could not digest the reason for which the party changed Kalaivani’s candidature in just two days.Thiruvanmiyur Kuppam and Odai Kuppam are part of the 181 division, which encompasses over 8,000 fishermen votes. the community leaders in the area were initially happy after the AIADMK nominated a candidate who hailed from the same community.However, their hope to elect a fisherwoman as their representative to the Chennai Corporation was dashed in two days after the AIADMK’s division secretary P Chinnasamy is believed to have produced a fake membership card claiming Kalaivani was with the DMK party even now and garnered the seat for his wife Indirani.Upon this ‘revelation,’ the AIADMK party dropped Kalaivani’s candidature and Chinnasamy’s wife Indirani has now become the ruling party’s candidate in this division.Irked over the division secretary’s backstabbing to garner the seat for his wife, two fishermen associations, Bharathi-led South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association and Kosumani-led Tamil Nadu Meenavar Makkal Sangam, have submitted a memorandum to the AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence and appealed to her to give their candidate a chance to stand in the election, which always stood with the AIADMK since the time that the party was led by their erstwhile charismatic leader MGR.Speaking to City Express, K Bharathi, president of SIFWA, said, “Kalaivani, who holds the designation of AIADMK’s divisional women wing leader in Thiruvanmiyur, has participated in several agitations organised by the party for the past two years in the locality and every party cadre knows about her.” “We see a conspiracy by Chinnasamy to snatch away the party ticket from fisherwoman Kalaivani only to give it to his wife. To achieve his goal, Chinnasamy produced a fake membership card to show Kalaivani has DMK ties, especially Amma gave her the ticket to contest the forthcoming polls,” Bharathi added.
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