As ADMK's Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) has won the intense battle of securing the party's 'Two Leaves' symbol for the Erode East bypoll from his rival O Panneerselvam (OPS), the former's candidate Thennarasu is all set to file his nomination on Tuesday- February 7, the last day for filing the nomination. 

The Erode East bypoll will be held on February 27 and the results will be declared on March 2. The battle for the Two leaves symbol had favoured EPS, thanks to his major numerical strength in the party that displayed a strong support for his leadership from the party's general council members. The political slugfest between EPS and OPS took a new turn after the Supreme Court's interim order that directed the party to seek the views from the general council members. 

As the majority of general council members supported EPS and his candidate, the OPS faction on Monday announced that it would take back its candidate Senthil Murugan from the race and that it would work for the victory of the Two Leaves symbol. After OPS had backtracked from the race, it was expected that EPS would secure the Two Leaves symbol and his candidate Thennarasu would be the ADMK's candidate for the Erode East bypoll. 

While OPS had withdrawn from the race, the leaders of EPS faction, ADMK's Presidium Chairman Tamizh Magan Hussain and senior ADMK leader CVe Shanmugam met the Election Commission officials in Delhi with the appropriate documents showing the support from the party's general council members to EPS. On Monday evening, the Election Commission has authorized Tamizh Magan Hussain for ADMK's official communication. 

The Election Commission said that Hussain was authorized for ADMK's official communication for the limited purpose of putting up its candidate in the Erode East bypoll. As OPS has endured a political setback for yet another time, his candidate Senthil Murugan had withdrawn his nomination. Winning the jackpot of Two Leaves symbol, the EPS faction is over the moon and is all set to launch its campaign.

However, the EPS faction is yet to divulge whether it will invite OPS to campaign for Thennarasu, who had served as Erode East MLA for two times. The filing of nominations for the Erode East bypoll had begun on January 31 and will end on Tuesday - February 7. The nominations would be scrutinised on February 8 and the last date for withdrawing nomination is on February 10.

On the other side of the aisle, the ruling DMK has let the Congress to contest in the bypoll. The Congress party has announced former Union Minister EVKS Elangovan as its candidate. Elangovan is the father of Congress MLA Thirumahan Everaa, whose demise had necessitated the bypoll. Everaa had died on January 4 at the age of 46 due to heart attack. Besides DMK and ADMK, the parties like TTV Dhinakaran's AMMK, Vijayakanth's DMDK, and Seeman's Naam Tamilar Katchi had also fielded the candidates.