DMK releases first list, Stalin’s son enters fray
The DMK, which announced candidates for 173 seats -- the remaining 61 seats will be contested by its allies, including the Congress -- will take on its rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which has governed the state for the past 10 years in direct contests in 122 constituencies.
Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M K Stalin will seek a third term from his Kolathur constituency in the April 6 assembly elections in the state while son Udhayanidhi Stalin will make his electoral debut from Chepauk-Tiruvalliken, as the party seeks to return to power after 10 years.
The DMK, which announced candidates for 173 seats -- the remaining 61 seats will be contested by its allies, including the Congress -- will take on its rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which has governed the state for the past 10 years in direct contests in 122 constituencies.
Both parties are without iconic leaders who led them for decades. DMK patriarch and Stalin’s father M Karunanidhi died in 2018, and AIADMK’s J Jayalalithaa in late 2016. The DMK swept last year’s Lok Sabha elections with the alliance it led winning 38 of the 39 seats in the state.
Earlier this week, the AIADMK announced a list of 177 candidates. Both the major Dravidian parties have avoided surprises in their candidate lists and have opted for tested and senior party leaders.
Since many of the alliance partners including the Vaiko-led MDMK will be contesting on the DMK’s Rising Sun symbol, the lead partner will be effectively in the fray in 187 seats, Stalin said while releasing the candidate list.
Nearly half of the 173 nominees are sitting MLAs including senior lawmakers Durai Murugan, K N Nehru, K Ponmudi, MRK Panneerselvam, P Geetha Jeevan and Poongothai Aladi Aruna-- all former ministers -- and TRB Raja, Anitha Radhakrishnan, S R Raja, M Subramanian and R Sakkarapani.The DMK has 101 representatives in the outgoing assembly.
Udhayanidhi Stalin, a popular actor in and producer of Tamil films, will fight from the Chepauk-Triplicane constituency, represented by the late J Anbazhagan who succumbed to Covid-19 last year.
The big fights will be between DMK’s Senthil Balaji and transport minister M R Vijayabaskar in Karur. Senthil Balaji was also a transport minister in the AIADMK’s 2011 cabinet but switched over to the V K Sasikala camp and was among the 18 MLAs who were disqualified for siding with TTV Dhinakaran in 2018 after which Balaji joined the DMK. Former strongman of the AIADMK, Thanga Tamilselvan who quit and joined TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) and later the DMK, has been given the ticket from Bodinayakanur to face-off against deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam. The elatively lesser known T Sampathkumar will take on the chief minister Edapaddi K. Palanaswami on his home turf, Edappadi. “He may be an ordinary man but he has the potential to win,” Stalin said.
Former mayors of Chennai, AIADMK’s Saidai Duraisamy and DMK’s Ma Subramanian will clash in Saidapet (the latter is the incumbent). Environment activist and a pro-jallikattu crusader Karthikeya Senapathy, who joined the DMK in 2020 will go head-on with AIADMK heavyweight and minister for municipal administration SP Velumani in his stronghold of Thondamuthur constituency in Coimbatore.
In Trichy, from where Stalin launched his ten-year vision for Tamil Nadu last week, party principal secretary and Trichy West MLA K N Nehru has been fielded from the same seat while another third-generation party leader and Udhaynidhi Stalin’s close aide Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi will seek re-election from Thiruverumbur constituency.
The party has fielded only 13 women. Stalin will file his nomination on March 15.
The DMK-led coalition will seek to oust the BJP-AIADMK alliance and return to power after a gap of a decade. BJP state vice-president and former minister in the AIADMK government Nainar Nagendran filed his nomination in Tirunelveli assembly segment even before BJP announced its candidates. Nagendran told reporters that he did so because it is an auspicious day. The BJP has so far identified only 20 assembly constituencies and is likely to announce its candidates Saturday.
“Both DMK and AIADMK have relied on their stalwarts,” says political commentator Sriram Seshadri. “The only difference in their list is that the DMK has fielded at least a dozen kin of senior leaders which will be convenient for the ruling alliance to attack them as practicing dynasty politics.”
