Badagas on boil over DMK snub

Udhagamandalam: A shoe was thrown at the car of former Union minister A Raja during a protest by members of the badaga community in Kotagiri on Friday . Some 2,000 people had gathered to agitate against the DMK not giving a ticket to a badaga candidate. Holding placards, they demanded that the DMK field a badaga candidate, preferably the sitting MLA, K Ramachandran, in Coonoor constituency by replacing Mubarak, the announced candidate.

The badagas have been particular in recent times that a candidate from their community wins in Coonoor ­ whether from the DMK or the AIADMK. And, in the ongoing factional tussle between Ramachandran and Mubarak, they have thrown their lot with Ramachandran since he is a badaga.

Last year, Mubarak became the party's district secretary, replacing Ramachandran. Now, the MLA ticket has also been denied to him, which irked the community as well the supporters of Ramachandran, who is the president of Young Badaga Association (YBA).

Since Thursday afternoon, Raja had been holding talks with Ramachandran and his supporters to arrive at a compromise. The Coonoor constituency consists of 147 badaga villages with some 1 lakh votes.

“I haven't done anything wrong to the party .Instead we worked hard in the last assembly election and the result was the