TTV Dhinakaran’s trusted lieutenant and former MLA Thanga Tamilselvan will be pitted against Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister and AIADMK Coordinator O Panneerselvam’s son P Raveendranath Kumar at the Theni parliamentary constituency. With less than a month to go before Tamil Nadu goes to polls, AMMK Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran has released the second and final list of candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well as the 18 Assembly bye-polls due in the state.
The year-old party, which has decided to go it alone in the Lok Sabha polls as well as the assembly bye-elections, has given a ticket to former AIADMK Sholingur MLA NG Parthiban who will be contesting from Arakkonam. Former AIADMK Anaicut MLA K Pandurangan will be contesting from the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency. Former state minister P Palaniappan will be contesting from Dharmapuri, facing off with the AIADMK alliance’s Anbumani Ramadoss of PMK, who is the sitting MP and the DMK’s S Senthil Kumar.
P Santhanakrishnan will be contesting from Chennai North, the parliamentary constituency where MLA TTV Dhinakaran’s RK Nagar constituency is housed. Dhinakaran stormed to power from RK Nagar in December 2017, the constituency previously held by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Former MLA G Senthamizhan has been given the ticket to contest the Arani seat while lawyer and politician P Jothimurugan will be the party’s candidate from Dindigul. M Bhuvaneswaran who will be contesting from Thoothukudi will be up against two political bigwigs: DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and BJP State President Tamilisai Soundararajan.
Other MP candidates from the party are: S Ganeshkumar for Krishnagiri, A Gnanasekar for Thiruvanamalai, Gomukhi Manian for Kallakurichi, S Paramasiva Ayyappan for Virudhunagar, KR Karthik for Cuddalore and EE Lakshmanan Kanyakumari.
The AMMK’s second list of candidates comes less than a week after its first list, which confirmed that the party would be contesting all 39 seats in the state as well as the lone Puducherry seat.
While the party’s first list saw nine of 18 MLAs who had been disqualified for declaring their support to TTV Dhinakaran getting re-nominated, the second list was different. Only four former MLAs have been renominated. The others have either been dropped or given a Lok Sabha ticket. Three former MLAs– Thanga Tamilselvan, P Palaniappan and NG Parthiban — have been given a Lok Sabha ticket each. It may also be noted that bye-polls to Ottapidaram, Aravakurichi and Thiruparankundram Assembly constituencies will not take place on April 18 when the state simultaneously votes in the Lok Sabha since petitions on the bye-polls are still pending in court.
The party’s other bye-poll candidates are: TG Mani for Shollingur, DK Rajendran for Pappireddipatti, R Thangadurai for Nilakkottai (SC), S Kamaraj for Thiruvarur, M Rangasamy for Thanjavur, R Jayakumar for Andipatti, Kathirgamu for Periyakulam(SC) and K Jothimani for Vilathikulam.
Source: The News Minute