AIADMK releases first list of candidates for Tamil Nadu Assembly polls

AIADMK released its first list of 23 candidates for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, renominating party chief K Palaniswami from Edappadi and fielding several senior leaders, while finalising seat-sharing arrangements within the NDA alliance

Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party AIADMK, leading the NDA in the state, on Wednesday released its first list of 23 candidates for the April 23 Assembly polls.

It renominated its chief K Palaniswami, Leader of Opposition, from his home turf of Edappadi constituency in Salem district and fielded MLAs and former legislators again from their traditional seats.

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Former minister and noted leader from Chennai city, D Jayakumar will fight from Royapuram in north Chennai and Rajya Sabha MP C Ve Shanmugam, also an ex-minister, will try his luck from Mailam in Villupuram. Health minister during the AIADMK regime, C Vijayabaskar, an MLA as well, will contest from Viralimalai.

The AIADMK retained in its first list top leaders K P Munusamy and Dindigul C Sreenivasan, both MLAs, and fielded them from their home constituencies of Veppanahalli (Krishnagiri) and Dindigul.

Senior leader and legislator Natham R Viswanathan will try his luck from Natham constituency in Dindigul district. The party named western region star leaders SP Velumani and P Thangamani from their home segments of Thondamuthur and Kumarapalayam respectively.

Legislators Sellur K Raju and KP Anbalagan will contest from Madurai West and Palacode. Cauvery delta region-based leaders R Kamaraj and OS Manian will fight from Nannilam and Vedaranyam.

Ex-ministers Kadambur C Raju (MLA) and RB Udhayakumar (Deputy Leader of Opposition) were named candidates from Kovilpatti and Thirumangalam.

KT Rajenthra Bhalaji, a well-known leader from Virudhunagar district who has faced allegations of scam and job racket cases, will fight from Sivakasi. P Benjamin, Agri S S Krishnamurthy (MLA), V V Rajan Chellappa (MLA), K C Karuppannan (MLA), K C Veeramani, M R Vijayabaskar and Thamarai S Rajendran were part of the list.

Ex-ministers including K C Veeramani and C Vijayabaskar face disproportionate assets cases filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.

Although Tamil nationalist NTK has already released its list of candidates for all the 234 seats, AIADMK is the first major party in the state to release its list of candidates, albeit in part.

AIADMK has allotted 27 seats to BJP, 18 to PMK and 11 to AMMK. Taking into account other allies in the NDA, the AIADMK is set to contest a lion’s share of seats out of the total 234 in Tamil Nadu.