Hundreds of farmers to file nominations from Kangeyam to contest Tamil Nadu assembly election

Hundreds of farmers have decided to file nominations from Kangeyam Assembly constituency in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu in the forthcoming elections. The decision to contest the polls was taken as the demand by farmers for releasing water from Parambikulam- Aliyar Project has fallen on deaf ears.

The farmers likened the situation to one their predecessors created 25 years ago in Modakurichi in Erode district. The ryots belonging to Vellakoil Branch Canal Water Protection Committee had gone on a five-day hunger strike demanding the release of water in January last, which was withdrawn after meeting the Chief Minister. Since there was no solution found, the farmers decided to file 1,000 nominations from Kangeyam constituency and a committee member filed his nomination on March 16, the committee sources said.

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With over 100 nominations received by the committee at least 100 would file the nominations today, they said adding that more farmers would be filing their papers on Thursday and Friday to touch 1,000.

A similar situation arose when 1,016 farmers filed their nominations from Modakurichi Assembly segment in 1996, taking the total nominations to 1,033, causing a nightmare to the Election Commission leading to postponing the poll by one month.

The Federation of Farmers Associations had taken the initiative to bring the attention of the government and also the Election Commission on their charter of demands, which included electoral reforms like measures to improve agriculture.

DMKs Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan had then defeated AIADMKs RN Kittusamy in the election, where 1,030 contestants lost their deposits, 158 candidates polling one vote each and 88 candidates not polling a single vote with a 50-page book as the ballot paper.