Tamil Nadu polls 2016: MDMK Chief Vaiko withdraws candidacy from Kovilpatti constituency

In a sudden announcement, MDMK Chief on Monday said he will not be contesting forthcoming May 16 elections. 

Vaiko had faced protests when he was in Kovilpatti constituency on Sunday. According to The NewsMinute, the MDMK Chief in a press release said that DMK and its Kovilapatti candidate held protests against him on caste lines by raising the issue of the death of Dalit man Sankar. Vaiko said that the protestors announced support for Kausalya (the Dalit man's wife). 

Vaiko lamented over the state of affairs in the DMK. Now, instead of Vaiko, Vinayak G Ramesh will be fielded as a candidate. 

Kovilpatti has been held by AIADMK for the last two terms.

Vaiko was set to contest the Assembly polls this time after a two decade-long hiatus. The last time he contested the Assembly election was in 1996, three years after founding MDMK. He contested from Vilathikulam constituency and lost by a very narrow margin of 634 votes to DMK. 

He lost in the Lok Sabha election too that year and only emerged third by bagging 2,04,339 votes in Sivakasi seat.

Since then, Vaiko has not contested in Assembly polls though he won in Lok Sabha polls from the same Sivakasi seat in 1998 and 1999. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls he lost in Virudhunagar.