Puducherry/New Delhi, March 21 The BJP on Saturday announced the list of nine candidates for the April 9 Assembly polls in Puducherry, fielding Home Minister A Namassivayam for re-election from the Mannadipet constituency.
The Speaker of the outgoing Assembly, Embalam R Selvam, is seeking re-election from Manavely, and he is among the candidates announced by the party leadership. Both Namassivayam and Selvam filed their nominations on Friday.
While local AINRC functionaries expected their leader, PWD Minister K Lakshminarayanan, to contest again from the Raj Bhavan segment, the BJP fielded its UT unit president V P Ramalingam from that constituency.
Lakshminarayanan has been contesting elections from the Raj Bhavan constituency for a long time.
Some BJP workers said the list "came as a virtual shock," as Sai J Saravanan Kumar, who was elected from the Oussudu reserved segment in the 2021 Assembly polls, has not been included in the present list.
Instead, the party has nominated E Theepaindhan for the Oussudu reserved segment. Theepaindhan is among the three nominated legislators in the outgoing Assembly.
Kumar emerged victorious in the last poll from the Oussudu constituency after defeating his immediate Congress rival P Karthikeyan.
Kumar became the Minister of Civil Supplies and Adi Dravidar Welfare following his victory in 2021. However, he stepped down from office in 2025 and stated that he was doing so to work for the development of the party.
P R N Tirumurugan (AINRC) from Karaikal was appointed as the Minister of Civil Supplies after Kumar resigned.
Supporters of Kumar turned up at his residence immediately after the announcement of the BJP's candidate list and opposed the non-inclusion of their leader in the list.
According to the BJP list, A Johnkumar, who was a minister without portfolio in the outgoing government, will contest from the Mudaliarpet seat. P M L Kalyanasundaram and G N S Rajasekaran will try their luck from Kalapet and Thirunallar, respectively.
T K S M Meenatchisundaram is the candidate from Neravy T R Pattinam, and A Dineshan from Mahe.
The ruling AINRC and the BJP-AIADMK combine reached an agreement for the Assembly polls in the union territory, where the AINRC will contest 16 seats, and the BJP will fight from the remaining 14.
The arrangements were finalized after Puducherry Chief Minister and AINRC leader N Rangasamy held talks with BJP leader and Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya at a private hotel here on Friday.
The BJP has allocated two seats each to the AIADMK and the Lakshia Jananayaga Katchi (LJK), according to AINRC sources.
Although Rangasamy maintained that the LJK, headed by Jose Charles Matin, should not be accommodated in the NDA headed by the AINRC, the talks with the Central minister ended with the chief minister agreeing to include the LJK in the front.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the AINRC contested 16 seats and won 10, the BJP contested nine seats and won six, while the AIADMK contested five and drew a blank.
The single-phase polling for 30 seats will be held on April 9, and the results will be declared on May 4.