Tamil Nadu Assembly polls: Candidate carries watermelon to file nomination

Thanjavur: In a bid to garner media attention, candidates in Tamil Nadu are getting creative with their campaigning strategies.

An independent candidate Santosh went to file his nomination from Thanjavur constituency in Tamil Nadu on Monday (March 15) carrying a watermelon, reported news agency ANI. 

He said that he came to file his nomination with the fruit as it was his allotted election symbol. He is contesting on the same symbol for the fourth time in a row. 

"Parties are promising change. Cinema actors and seasoned politicians contesting again cannot be seen as a change, People like us should get a chance," he said. "I don't have money for an expensive election campaign," he further said.

"I got 100 votes the first time I contested. Last time I got more than 400 votes. I am expecting to at least get 10,000 votes in this election. I may even win if people support me," he added.

Candidate Hari Nadar went to file his nomination from the Alangulam constituency wearing 4.25 kilograms of gold.

Thanga Shanmugasundaram, a representative of a farmers association on Monday paid his election deposit in coins and old rupee notes when he filed his nomination from the Ariyalur constituency.

In another similar incident from Nagapattinam assembly constituency, an independent candidate Baskar filed his nomination paying his security deposit with Rs 20 notes which took officials a long time to count, thus attracting media attention.

The nomination filing window for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections is open till 3 pm on March 19.

The assembly elections in Tamil Nadu will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2. Polls will be held for 234 seats in the state with the Congress-DMK and BJP-AIADMK alliance being the major groups contesting against each other.

(With inputs from ANI)