PUDUCHERRY: The BJP would contest nine seats and AIADMK five seats in the alliance according to a late evening release..
For the BJP, former PWD minister A Namassivayam who crossed over to BJP would contest Mannadipet constituency for the first time after giving up Villianur constituency to NR Congress. The party’s state Secretary and nominated MLA V Saminathan has been nominated to contest Lawspet constituency . He lost the seat to the Speaker V P Sivakozhunthu in 2016 elections. Now Sivakozhunthu is with BJP, but he is not contesting the seat.
Former Education minister PML Kalyanasundaram – Kalapet constituency, , former MLA A John Kumar – Kamaraj Nagar, Lawspet , Sai J Saravana Kumar - Ossudu (Reserved) , Manavely – Embalam R Selvam. Among the debutants nominated are Vivilian Richards – Nellithope G N S Rajasekaran - Thirunallar and VMCS Manoharan- Neravy T R Pattinam .
VMCS Manoharan, is the son of former Speaker V M C Sivakumar , Vivilian Richards is the son of former MLA A John Kumar and G N S Rajasekaran is a businessman .
Some MLAs who resigned their seats and joined BJP have not been nominated . Among them are D Venkatesan of DMK and E Theepaindan. Also the Speaker V P Sivakozhunthu who won the Lawspet seat in 2016, and has become a BJP sympathiser has not been nominated .
According to the list released by AIADMK, the sitting MLAs A Anbazhagan (Uppalam), A Baskar (Mudaliarpet), Vaiyapuri Manikandan (Muthialpet) and KAU Assana (Karaikal-South) would contest from their respective seats. Former MLA Om Sakthi Segar, who is also the party’s west convenor has been allotted Orleanpet constituency instead of Nellithope from where he won the previous election in 2011. Though he filed his nomination from Nellithope on Monday, he now has been nominated for the adjoining Orleanpet.