PUDUCHERRY: Putting to rest all speculations of an alliance with the ruling All India NR Congress (AINRC), the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Monday announced candidates for all the 30 Assembly seats in the Union Territory. This the first time in over three decades that the party has decided to go solo in the Assembly polls in Puducherry.
Though it was speculated that AINRC and AIADMK may forge an alliance, dilly-dallying by the former over taking a decision on the matter appears to have forced the Jayalalithaa-led party to go alone.
Enthused by the considerable enhancement of the percentage of votes secured in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, particularly in Karaikal region, the AIADMK is aiming to capture power in the Union Territory. Also, AIADMK has admitted several dissidents from other parties into the party fold and nominated them to contest. Political heavy weight and former RS member P Kannan, who had quit the Congress and joined the AIADMK, has been allotted the Raj Bhavan seat, where he may face ex-union minister V Narayanasamy or sitting MLA K Lakshminarayanan of Congress.
Besides, AIADMK has re-nominated all its five sitting MLAs namely P Purushottaman, A Anbazhagan, Om Sakthi Sekar, L Periyasamy and A Basakar to contest from their respective constituencies. It also has nominated a woman candidate M Mahadevi, a former councillor from the Mannadipet constituency. New entrant V M C Sivakumar has been nominated to contest the Neravy-T R Pattinam seat. Other new entrants include Vaiyapuri Manikandan, a close confidante of CM N Rangasamy. Whatever may be the outcome, political observers feel that AIADMK would be able to swell it’s representation in the UT Assembly after this election.