Erode East bypoll: Tamil Nadu BJP holds meeting, Central leadership to take final call

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], January 31 : Ahead of the Erode East bye-polls, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president K Annamalai on Tuesday held a meeting with State and District level functionaries to make a final decision over the bye-election.
The meeting was held at Kamalalayam, the BJP state headquarters in Chennai. BJP Legislative Leader Nainar Nagendran, state vice president Narayanan Thirupathy, former MP CP Radhakrishnan and former MLA H Raja were among the others who were present in the meeting.
Tamil Nadu BJP leaders said the party would send its inputs to the national leadership for the final decision. Party sources said BJP would make a final decision on Erode East bye-election within two days.
Notably, BJP's alliance partner AIADMK has planned to announce their candidate on February 5.
According to sources, in Tuesday's meeting, some functionaries pinned their views that Annamalai should contest on Erode East as AIADMK is waiting for a judgement on 'Two Leaves' case (party symbol). Though BJP senior leaders opined that BJP should work towards the 2024 general election.
Earlier BJP State president Annamalai while speaking with media at Coimbatore mentioned, "This is not the election for us." From Annamalai's statement, it suggested that BJP is not keen on contesting in the election.
Erode (East) Assembly bypoll is to be held on February 27, the last date of nomination is on February 7 and the result will be declared on March 2.
Both O Panneerselvam (OPS) and Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) factions of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) appeared keen on their candidate as AIADMK candidate in the polls.
On Saturday, leaders of AIADMK factions led by EPS and OPS went to state BJP headquarters to meet BJP state president K Annamalai and discuss the Erode East bypoll in the state.
The two factions have sought support from their alliance partner whereas BJP has yet to announce its stand. The party said it would take a decision after a meeting with district secretaries on January 31.
The AIADMK interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday approached the Supreme Court seeking an interim order in the AIADMK leadership case while citing the deadline for filing nominations in the bypoll for Erode (East) constituency.
Election Commission refused to accept the signature of EPS as AIADMK interim General Secretary, citing the pendency of cases on party leadership before the Supreme Court, senior advocate C Aryama Sundaram, appearing for EPS told the apex court.
On January 11, the Supreme Court bench reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas relating to the tussle between former Chief Ministers O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami over AIADMK leadership.
In its General Council meeting held on July 11, the dual-leadership model in the AIADMK was "ended" and OPS was expelled from the party for "anti-party" activities.
In the meeting, EPS was elevated as the interim General Secretary of the party. Since the passing away of former Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) General Secretary J Jayalalithaa, the party has been having a dual leadership with O Panneerselvam (OPS) and EPS leading it as coordinator and joint coordinator respectively.
However, recently, disputes arose between both leaders with the EPS group pressing for unitary leadership.
From the DMK alliance, Congress will fight the polls and has announced EVKS Elangovan as its candidate. Makkal Needhi Maiyam President and actor Kamal Haasan announced his support for the DMK alliance candidate.