Chennai, March 25 The main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK, which leads the NDA in the state, released its first list of 23 candidates for the April 23 assembly elections on Wednesday.
The party renominated its chief, K Palaniswami, Leader of the Opposition, from his home constituency of Edappadi in Salem district, and fielded MLAs and former legislators from their traditional seats as well.
Former Minister and prominent Chennai city leader, D Jayakumar, will contest from Royapuram in north Chennai, and Rajya Sabha MP C Ve Shanmugam, also a former 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 its 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 the Natham constituency in Dindigul district. The party also nominated star leaders from the western region, 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. Leaders from the Cauvery delta region, R Kamaraj and OS Manian, will fight from Nannilam and Vedaranyam.
Former Ministers Kadambur C Raju (MLA) and RB Udhayakumar (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) were named candidates from Kovilpatti and Thirumangalam.
KT Rajenthra Bhalaji, a well-known leader from Virudhunagar district, who has faced allegations of scam/job racket cases, will contest from Sivakasi. P Benjamin, Agri SS Krishnamurthy (MLA), VV Rajan Chellappa (MLA), KC Karuppannan (MLA), KC Veeramani, MR Vijayabaskar and Thamarai S Rajendran were also part of the list.
Former Ministers, including KC Veeramani and C Vijayabaskar, are facing disproportionate assets cases filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption.
Although the Tamil nationalist NTK had already released its list of candidates for all 234 seats, the AIADMK is the first major party in the state to release its list of candidates, albeit partially.
The AIADMK has allotted 27 seats to the BJP, 18 to the PMK, and 11 to the AMMK. Taking into account other allies in the NDA, the AIADMK is set to contest a significant number of seats out of the total 234 in Tamil Nadu.