CHENNAI: The BJP on Friday released its list of 27 candidates for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, after delays caused by prolonged deliberations and discontent among a section of cadres and functionaries over seats allotted by the AIADMK.
The list was along expected lines and did not include former state president K Annamalai. Despite speculation that the party might field him, the list confirmed he will not contest. Annamalai had earlier indicated that he was not interested in contesting in the Assembly polls.
The list includes several prominent names: senior leader and former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who will contest from Mylapore; Union Minister of State L Murugan from Avanashi (SC); BJP national Mahila Morcha president Vanathi Srinivasan from Coimbatore (North); and BJP state president Nainar Nagendran from Sattur.
S Vijayadharani, who got elected from Congress in 2021 from Vilavancode and later shifted to BJP and resigned as MLA, has been given an opportunity to contest from the same constituency again.
Other candidates include M Ashwiinkumar from Avadi, Nagesh Kumar from Thalli, C Elumalai from Tiruvannamalai, SD Premkumar from Rasipuram (SC), Kirthika Shivkumar from Modakkurichi, Bhojarajan from Udhagamanadalam, S Thangaraj from Tiruppur (South), Govi Chandru from Thiruvarur, M Muruganandam from Thanjavur, C Udayakumar from Gandharvakottai (SC).
The rest of the candidates are, N Ramachandran from Pudukkottai, Kavitha Srikanth from Aranthangi, Pon V Balaganapathy from Manamadurai (SC), Raama Sreenivasan from Madurai South, GBS K Nagendran from Ramanathapuram, KRM Radhakrishnan from Tiruchendur, Ananthan Ayyasamy from Vasudevanallur (SC), SP Balakrishnan from Radhapuram, MR Gandhi from Nagercoil, T Sivakumar from Colachel and P Ramesh from Padmanabhapuram.
The leader of the political outfit South India Forward Bloc’s, KC Thirumaran, will contest from Tirupattur.
Of the four sitting BJP MLAs, three have been given an opportunity again – Nainar Nagendran, Vanathi Srinivasan, and M R Gandhi.
In a notable change, instead of Saraswathi, who was elected from Modakkurichi, the party has fielded her daughter-in-law Kirthika Shivkumar from the same constituency.
Of the 27 candidates, the saffron party is fielding five women candidates.
The candidates now have two days to file nominations - April 4 and 6.
While the BJP was allotted 27 seats in the AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance, there was some discontent within sections of the party, with leaders feeling it had neither received an adequate number of seats nor a favourable set of constituencies, despite securing more than 11 per cent vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls while leading a separate alliance without the AIADMK.
There was also confusion over whether Annamalai, who had lost the 2021 assembly election from Aravakkurichi and 2024 lok sabha polls from Coimbatore, would contest the elections. Party sources said he had a meeting with Union Minister Piyush Goyal, the election in-charge for Tamil Nadu, during which he expressed his unwillingness to contest and the reasons for the same.
