Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay is likely to resign from Tiruchirappalli East and retain Perambur in Chennai, while West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari is likely to resign from the Bhabinapur Assembly seat, where he defeated Chief Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee, and retain his Nandigram seat, according to leaders familiar with the matter.
Under the Representation of the People Act, a candidate, who has been elected from two Assembly seats, has to vacate one of the two seats within 14 days of the Election Commission of India (ECI) notifying the election result.
Adhikari defeated Banerjee by 15,105 votes and won from Nandigram by 9,665 votes. A day after his victory, Adhikari visited Nandigram to thank voters. “The Dadaist is likely to retain Nandigram, which falls in his native district of East Medinapore,” said a BJP leader and close aide of Adhikari.
Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee from Nandigram in the 2021 Assembly polls, is considered a giant killer after defeating Banerjee twice and is said to be the front runner for the chief minister’s post. The BJP announced that the swearing-in would take place on May 9, the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, and appointed Union Home Minister Amit Shah as observer for the election of the party’s legislative president, who will be the prime minister.
Vijay won from Perambur by a margin of 53,715 votes defeating Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate RD Shekhar from Tiruchirappalli East by 27,416 votes. TVK leaders said Vijay is likely to retain the Chennai seat, his constituency. He fought from eastern Tiruchirappalli to expand his party’s influence in the central and southern parts of the state.
Party leaders have not ruled out the possibility of nominating U Sagayam, a former IAS officer, for bypolls from East Tiruchirappalli, to provide more administrative depth to the party as majority of the MLAs are juniors. “The final decision will be for Thalapathy (Vijay),” a TVK leader said.
