CHENNAI: With the DMK releasing its candidate list for the upcoming Assembly election on Saturday, six of the 15 constituencies in Chennai, where the party will contest, have been allotted to fresh faces. Of these, two Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) councillors – Raja Anbazhagan and N Chitrarasu – have secured tickets to contest from T Nagar and Anna Nagar respectively, while another GCC councillor, Dr A P Poornima, has been fielded from the Ambattur constituency in Tiruvallur.
Raja Anbazhagan is the son of three-time MLA and DMK loyalist J Anbazhagan, who died of Covid-19 in 2020 and after whom the recently inaugurated flyover in T Nagar has been named. Raja later served as DMK Chennai West district youth wing organiser before being elected as councillor for ward 141 in the 2022 local body polls. He was expected to contest in 2021 Assembly election in the same constituency, but J Karunanidhi, brother of J Anbazhagan, was fielded instead.
Meanwhile, N Chitrarasu, considered close to Udhayanidhi Stalin, serves as DMK Chennai West district secretary, a post previously held by J Anbazhagan until his demise. Chitrarasu later became the councillor for Ward 110 in Teynampet zone.
He has also been the GCC standing committee chairman (Works). Though Karthick Mohan, son of incumbent MLA MK Mohan, was expected to contest from Anna Nagar, Karthick has now been fielded from Villivakkam.
Poornima, a physician by profession, was also a first-time councillor (Ward 87 in Ambattur). Speaking to TNIE, she said, “Beyond local civic concerns, my focus will also be on the overall development of the Ambattur assembly constituency through a holistic approach.”
The two other new faces who are set to contest this time include Tamilan Prasanna (Egmore), an advocate and joint secretary of DMK spokesperson committee, and Subair Khan (Royapuram), the DMK minority wing state secretary and a doctor. In addition, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar constituency, where P Sivakumar (Thayagam Kavi) contested and won in 2021 election, has now been replaced by KS Ravichandran, who contested and won from Egmore constituency in the 2016 Assembly election.