BJP Names Annamalai, Murugan for Lok Sabha Polls from TN

Chennai: Former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, BJP State President K Annamalai and Union Minister of State L Murugan were among the nine candidates for Tamil Nadu announced by the BJP on Thursday when the AIADMK also came out with its second list of 17 nominees that included Shimla Muthuchozhan, who joined the party just recently after a long association with DMK that saw her pitted against J Jayalalithaa in Kolathur Assembly constituency once.

A meeting of BJP leaders was held at the State headquarters in Chennai to finalize the list of 20 BJP members and four leaders of friendly parties contesting on the ‘Lotus’ symbol for the Lok Sabha polls on April 19 before Annamalai and other leaders left for Delhi, from where the latest list was released in the evening.

Tamilisai Soundararjan is fielded against DMK’s sitting MP Tamilachi Thangapandian in South Chennai while Murugan, who was very recently nominated for the Rajya Sabha, will face DMK MP A Raja and AIADMK nominee D Logesh Tamilselvan in Nilgiris and K Annamalai has been pitted against Ganapathy P Rajkumar of DMK and Singai G Ramachandran of AIADMK in Coimbatore.

Sitting BJP MLA Nainar Nagendran will be fighting Shimla Muthuchozan in Tirunelveli, which has been allotted to the Congress by the DMK-led alliance, while former BJP Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan has been fielded in his traditional constituency of Kanyakumari that has also been allotted to the Congress.

AIADMK general secretary, Edappadi K Palaniswami, who announced the names of 16 candidates of his party on Wednesday, named 17 more candidates on Thursday. The party has allocated five seats to DMDK, the party founded by Vijayakanth, and Palaniswami also visited their office to firm up the alliance.

The others in the BJP first list for the State are Vinoj P Selvam (Central Chennai), A C Shanmugham (Vellore), C Narasimhan (Krishnagiri) and T R Paarivendhar (Perambalur). The BJP has to come up with the names of 15 more candidates, both its members and those allies contesting under the ‘Lotus’ symbol.

Annamalai had already signed an agreement with AMMK founder T T V Dinakaran for the latter to contest from two seats, while the BJP agreed for three seat to Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), led by G K Vasan, while O Panneerselvam, leading a splinter group of the AIADMK, is contesting the polls from Ramanathapuram constituency under an independent election symbol.

In the AIADMK camp, the final picture on the alliance has emerged with the DMDK, the SDPI and Puthiya Tamilagam joining hands and Palaniswami is all set to embark on a whirlwind campaign from Trichy on Sunday, when DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth is expected to share the stage with him. The first phase of the tour will conclude on March 31 at Tiruvarur after going through Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Sivakasi, Virudhunagar, Kanchipuram, Sriperumbudur, Puducherry and Cuddalore.

The second phase of the tour will start from April 1 at Arakkonam and end on April 15 in Chennai. In between he will be campaigning at various places that include Vellore, Karur, Namakkal, Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Kallakurichi, Villupuram, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Sivagangai, Madurai, Dindigul, Pollachi, Tiruppur, Salem, Erode, Chidambaram and Perambalur.

The AIADMK also announced U Rani as its candidate for the Vilavancode Assembly seat, where byelections are to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress, whose constituency it was, and the BJP are yet to name their candidates.