More than 70 DMK members were arrested by the Coimbatore police on Thursday - February 3 for staging protests against the party leadership, demanding the change in a candidature in the upcoming urban local body polls in the Coimbatore Corporation. The urban bodies in the entire state will go for polls on February 19 and the cadres of the state ruling party protesting the leadership with their demand had drawn major attention. 

According to reports, the Coimbatore police have arrested over 70 DMK members after they staged a protest at Coimbatore's Selvapuram. The cadres had demanded the DMK leadership to change the candidate finalized in ward number 77 for the urban local body polls in the Coimbatore Corporation. The protesters had accused DMK leader CR Ravichandran of allowing a seat to a candidate who is not fit to contest in the polls. 

Ravichandran has awarded a seat for Rajalakshmi to contest in ward 77. However, the members had urged the DMK leadership to remove Rajalakshmi from the candidature and to award the seat to Baby Mathiyazhagan. As they didn't disperse despite several orders from the police, the officials had arrested over 70 cadres and detained them under their custody.

The dissents have been growing higher against the DMK leadership from the western districts over picking the candidates. As the party leadership won't be directly involved in finalizing the candidates for the urban local body polls, the candidates were chosen by the respective district secretaries. Several cadres are expressing their displeasure over the candidates chosen by the district secretaries and such displeasure had spurred protests in Coimbatore.

In line with Coimbatore, nearby Tirupur district has reported another protest by the DMK cadres. They had held protests against the party leadership in front of the party office in Tirupur and they had condemned the allocation of 28 seats to the allied parties in the urban local body polls.