AIADMK’s list of candidates for the second phase of 127 seats: 42 new faces, 17 women
Tamil Nadu: The list of candidates for the second phase of the AIADMK’s 127 seats contesting the assembly elections was released on Friday.
Of these, 42 are newcomers and 17 are women. The AIADMK had announced that it would contest 169 seats in the assembly elections as part of the National Democratic Alliance. The first list of 23 candidates, including AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami and former ministers, was released last Wednesday.
Following this, Edappadi K. Palaniswami released the list of candidates for the second phase of the 127 seats on Friday. While 21 former ministers were declared candidates in the first phase, 15 former ministers have been given the opportunity to contest again in the second phase.
Furthermore, of the 66 MLAs who won the 2021 elections and are currently in office, 45 are newcomers, 42 are newcomers, and 17 are women. 15 former ministers: In the second phase of the list of candidates, 15 former ministers, namely P.V. Ramana, Madhavaram V. Murthy, V. Somasundaram, P. Balakrishna Reddy, S. Ramachandran, Mukkoor N. Subramanian, M.S.M. Anandan, C. Thamodharan, Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan, Pollachi V. Jayaraman, M.C. Sampath, C.T. Chellapandian, S.P. Shanmuganathan, Isakki Subbaiah, and N. Thalavaisundaram have been given a second chance.
Similarly, new candidates have been fielded in 42 constituencies, including Gummidipoondi, Ampur, Pakur, Pappireddipatti, Chengam, Vandavasi, Vanur, Villupuram, Thirukovilur, Sankarapuram, Kallakurichi, Yercaud, Salem South, Veerapandi, Namakkal, Thiruchengode, Erode East, Tarapuram, Anthiyur, Gopichettipalayam, Valparai, Athur, Aravakurichi, Krishnarayapuram, Kulithalai, Mannaparai, Trichy East, Lalgudi, Musiri, Thuraiyur, Panrutti, Kurinjipadi, Thiruthuraipoondi, Papanasam, Orathanadu, Peravurani, Madurai East, Virudhunagar, Aruppukottai, Vilathikulam, Sankarankovil and Palanakottai.
Among the constituencies dropped from the AIADMK…: 38-year-old V.P. Prabhu, Gobichettipalayam West Union Secretary and a relative of Edappadi Palaniswami, has been nominated from the Gobichettipalayam seat, where Sengottaiyan, who was expelled from the AIADMK, has been a long-time successful MLA. V.D. Narayanasamy has been nominated from Bodi, where O. Panneerselvam contested and won, and Shekhar has been nominated from Orathandil, where Vaithilingam won. Limaroza, wife of businessman Martin, who recently joined the AIADMK, has been declared the candidate from Lalgudi.
MLAs who didn’t get a chance: Former Assembly Speaker Dhanapal, Govindaswamy, Sevur Ramachandran, Chakravarthy, Senthilkumar, Chitra, Sundararajan, Balasubramaniam, Rajamuthu, Manraj, Selvaraj, Vijayakumar, and Mahendran, among 13 who contested and won the last election.
Only Muslim candidates: There was a belief that Muslims would be given priority to appease them after the alliance with the BJP. However, of the 150 candidates announced by the AIADMK, only S. Syed Sultan Shamsuddin has been given the Palakkad constituency.
