Coimbatore : Former Minister and senior DMK leader Pongalur N Palanisamy on Friday filed his nominations to the Sulur assembly constituency here, where the by-election is scheduled for May 19.

Palanisamy was accompanied by another former minister A V Velu, who is the party in-charge for the elections.

There was some drama when Naam Tamilar Katchi workers protested against the police for not allowing the vehicle carrying their candidate Vijayraghavan to the place of filing nominations and only allowing the DMK vehicle.

Police then withdrew permission for Palanisamy’s car, after which the workers dispersed.

An independent candidate and social activist, Prabhakran, filed his nomination and gave Rs10,000 as deposit in Rs10 coins. Representing People’s Movement Against injustice, he is said to have collected the money in a novel way with the slogan ‘one vote one rupee’ from the general public.

Already seven independents have filed their nomination for the by-poll necessitated due to the death of sitting AIADMK MLA R Kanagaraj couple of months ago.

AIADMK is fielding P Kandasamy and AMMK named Sukumar for the poll and are likely to file nominations in a couple of days.