The Congress on Sunday declared former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief EVKS Elangovan as the party's candidate for the February 27 by-election to the Erode (east) assembly constituency.
The announcement came as a surprise as Elangovan stated on Saturday that he would not contest the bypoll but sought the ticket for his son Sanjay Sampath.
Elangovan will contest the assembly election after almost 39 years.
On Sunday evening, an AICC press release said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had approved the candidature of Elangovan for the ensuing assembly byelection to the Erode East constituency which was necessitated due to the death of his son and incumbent MLA Thirumahan Evera.
Sampath, after the party meeting on Sunday, expressed his wish to contest the poll from the Congress ticket. Erode South Congress district president Makkal Rajan had also sought to contest the by-election.
Elangovan was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 and served as Union minister of state for textiles. He was TNCC president from 2014 to 2017. He was elected to the Sathyamangalam assembly constituency in the year 1985.
He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Theni constituency and lost to AIADMK's P Ravindranath Kumar
Last week, the Election Commission announced a bypoll to the Erode (East) constituency in Tamil Nadu on February 27. The counting of votes will be done on March 2. The filing of nominations would start on January 31 and end on February 7.
( With inputs from ANI )
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