![TTV Dhinakaran announces first list of AMMK candidates for Lok Sabha, TN bye-polls](http://media.assettype.com/tnm%2Fimport%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2FTTVDhinakaranLaugh750.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran has released the first list of candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well as the 18 assembly bye-polls due in Tamil Nadu. The one-year-old party, which has opted to go alone this election season, has finalised 24 candidates for the parliamentary elections and nine candidates for the Assembly bye-elections. Significantly, nine of 18 MLAs, who were disqualified for declaring their support to TTV Dhinakaran, have been re-nominated by the RK Nagar MLA.
Sunday's announcement also stated that this was the first list of candidates and that the party would contest in 40 parliamentary seats, including in the Union Territory of Puducherry when simultaneous polls are held on Thursday, April 18. The results for both contests would be announced on the same day, that is, Thursday, May 23.
The AMMK's Lok Sabha candidates are: Pon Raja for Thiruvallur(SC), Esakki Subbaiah for Chennai South, G Tambaram Narayanan for Sriperumbudur, A Munusamy for Kancheepuram (SC), Vanur N Ganapathy for Villupuram (SC), Veerapandi SK Selvam for Salem, PP Saminathan for Namakkal, KC Senthilkumar for Erode, SR Selvam for Tiruppur, M Ramasamy for Nilgiris, NR Appadurai for Coimbatore, S Muthukumar for Pollachi, N Thangavel for Karur, Charubala Thondaiman for Tiruchirappalli, M Rajasekaran for Perambalur, A Ilavarasan for Chidambaram(SC), S Senthamizhan for Mayiladuthurai, T Senkodi for Nagapattinam(SC), P Murugesan for Thanjavur, V Pandi for Sivaganga, K David Annadurai for Madurai, VTN Anand for Ramanathapuram, AS Ponnuthayi for Tenkasi(SC) and R Gnana Arulmani for Tirunelveli.
The party’s candidates for nine of 18 Assembly bye-poll seats are: TA Ezhumalai for Poonamallee, P Vetrivel for Perambur, M Kothandapani for Thiruporur, C Jayanthi Padmanabhan for Gudiyatham, R Balasubramani for Ambur, R Murugan for Aroor, Mariappan Kennedy for Manamadurai, Edhirkottai SG Subramanian for Sattur and Dr S Muthiah for Paramakudi.
It may be recalled that these former MLAs, along with their nine lawmaker colleagues, were disqualified by the Madras High Court in October last year for declaring their support to TTV Dhinakaran.