The BJP on Sunday announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. The party, which is ruling at the Centre, is in alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, and has been given 20 seats. The party announced a first list with the names of six candidates.
Rajya Sabha MP and National General Secretary Arun Singh announced the list of candidates on Sunday. Tamil Nadu BJP President L Murugan will contest the Assembly polls from Dharapuram constituency, while Khushboo Sundar will contest from Thousand Lights in Chennai. BJP State Vice President and former IPS officer K Annamalai will make his electoral debut from the Aravakurichi seat against DMK’s R Elango.
Senior BJP leader in Tamil Nadu H Raja will contest from Karaikudi. H Raja was elected from Karaikudi Assembly constituency in 2001 and had contested and lost the seat in 2006 and 2016 Assembly polls. He had also unsuccessfully contested from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency thrice -- 1999, 2014 and 2019.
BJP Women’s Wing Chief Vanathi Srinivasan will face off against Congress’s Mayura Jayakumar and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Chief Kamal Haasan in Coimbatore South. Vanathi Srinivasan had contested in the 2016 Assembly polls from Coimbatore South and had lost. Khushboo Sundar, who was eyeing the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituency has been allotted the Thousand Lights constituency and will go up against DMK’s Dr N Ezhilan. Tamil Nadu BJP President L Murugan will face off against DMK’s Kayalvizhi Selvaraj.
BJP’s MR Gandhi will contest in Nagercoil Assembly constituency. Apart from the six names, the party is yet to release the names for the other 14 Assembly constituencies and one parliamentary constituency, Kanyakumari, for which a bye-election is also scheduled for April 6. Tamil Nadu will go to the polls on April 6 and the results will be declared on May 2.
Here is the list of other candidates announced by the BJP for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
1. Vinoj P Selvam - Harbour
2. S Thanigaivel - Tiruvannamalai
3. VAT Kalivarathan - Tirukoilur
4. CK Saraswathi - Modakurichi
5. D Periyasamy - Thittakudi
6. Poondi S Venkatesan - Thiruvaiyaru
7. P Saravanan - Madurai North
8. G Pandurangan - Virudhunagar
9. D Kuppuram - Ramanathapuram
10. Nainar Nagendran - Tirunelveli
11. P Ramesh - Kolachel