CHENNAI: The ruling AIADMK on Sunday released the list of candidates for the 20 Parliamentary constituencies and 18 Assembly constituencies for which by-elections would be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. In all, the AIADMK which won 37 MPs out of 39 in Tamil Nadu, now has accommodated only six of the sitting MPs including Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, M Thambidurai.
The two lists of candidates were released after two rounds of discussions which lasted for over six hours. Significantly, P Ravindranath Kumar, son of deputy chief minister O Pannneerselvam, Manoj Pandian, son of former Assembly Speaker PH Pandian and Rajsatyan, son of VV Rajan Chellappa, have been given a party ticket this time. Of them, Manoj Pandian is a former Rajya Sabha MP.
Besides, four former ministers have been given party tickets to contest the Lok Sabha elections - KP Munusamy, NR Sivapathi, Agri SS Krishnamurthi and MSM Anandan. S Jothi, wife of former minister P Balakrishna Reddy, who lost his ministership as well as membership of the State Assembly, has been given a party ticket to contest from her husband’s Assembly constituency of Hosur.
The AIADMK is fielding only one women – Maragatham Kumaravel from Kancheepuram – as Lok Sabha candidate although Panneerselvam, while releasing the list of constituencies from which the party and its allies would contest, had said, “Women will be given due importance while fielding candidates thus following in the footsteps of Amma (late CM J Jayalalithaa).”
The candidates for parliamentary constituencies are: Tiruvallur (SC) (P Venugopal), South Chennai (J Jayavardhan), Kancheepuram (Maragatham Kumaravel), Krishnagiri ( KP Munusamy), Tiruvannamalai (Agri SS Krishnamurthi), Arni (Chenji V Ezhumalai), Salem (KRS Saravanan), Erode (Vengu alias G Manimaran), Tirupur (MSM Anandan), Nilgiris (M Thiagarajan), Pollachi (C Mahendran), Karur (M Thambidurai), Perambalur (NR Sivapathi), Chidambaram (P Chandrasekar), Mayiladuthurai (S Asaimani), Nagapattinam (Thazhai M Saravanan), Madurai (VVR Rajsatyan), Theni (P Ravindranath Kumar) and Tirunelveli (PH Manoj Pandian).
For the by-elections to the 18 Assembly constituencies, the contestants are: Poonamallee (G Vaidyanathan), Perambur (RS Rajesh), Thiruporur (Thirukazhukundram S Arumugam), Sholingur (G Sampath), Gudiyatham (Kaspa R Murthi), Ambur (J Jothiramalingaraja), Hosur (S Jothi Balakrishna Reddy), Pappireddypatti (A Govindasamy), Harur ( V Sampathkumar), Nilakottai (S Thenmozhi), Thiruvarur (R Jeevanandam), Thanjavur (R Gandhi), Manamadurai (S Nagarajan), Andipatti (A Logirajan), Periyakulam (M Murugan), Sathur (MSR Rajavarman), Paramakudi (M Sadan Prabhakar) and Vilathikulam (P Chinnappan).