A district secretary of the AIADMK in Tiruvannamalai Dusi K Mohan and a former party functionary from Tirupattur, N. Tirupathi, joined actor C. Joseph Vijay’s TVK and were fielded as candidates from Cheyyar and Tirupattur constituencies for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

The AIADMK leadership expelled Mr. Mohan soon after his candidature was announced by Mr Vijay.

AIADMK sources said Mr. Tirupathi was the Tirupattur South Union secretary for AIADMK. He had expressed interest to contest the Assembly polls for the first time from Tirupattur . However, the AIADMK had allotted the seat to the AMMK. Opposing this, on Tuesday, AIADMK functionaries had staged a protest in Tirupattur town. Subsequently, AMMK announced A. Gnanasekar as its candidate for the constituency.

Nallathambi (DMK) has been elected in Tirupattur constituency in 2016 and 2021. He has been renominated this time too.

Likewise, in Tiruvannamalai, Mr. Mohan had joined the TVK after he was denied an AIADMK ticket to contest from Cheyyar. The AIADMK announced M.N. Subramaniyan as its candidate for Cheyyar.

Interestingly, Mr. Mohan had contested from Cheyyar in 2021 but lost to DMK’s O. Jothi by a margin of 12,271 votes. Mr. Jothi has been given the ticket for the constituency this time as well.