AIADMK retains Kongu belt; six sitting MPs

CHENNAI: The ruling AIADMK on Sunday released its list of candidates and their constituencies, retaining most of the seats in Kongu belt -- Salem, Namakkal, Erode, Tirupur, Nilgiris, Pollachi, and Krishnagiri, the citadel of MGR’s AIADMK. The party holds on to half the seats in north, and much of the Cauvery delta.

After a four-hour discussion at the party headquarters in the evening, the leadership put out the list of candidates via email, renominating only six of the 37 sitting MPs – Deputy LS speaker M Thambidurai(Karur), P Venugopal (Tiruvallur), Maragatham Kumaravel (Kancheepuram), C Mahendran (Pollachi), J Jayavardan (Chennai South) and V Elumalai (Arani). Venugopal polled 6.28 lakh votes, the highest in the 2014 polls in the state. Party deputy coordinator K P Munusamy (Krishnagiri), former ministers Agri S S Krishnamurthy (Tiruvannamalai), M S M Anandan (Tirupur) and N R Sivapathi (Perambalur) have also been nominated. The former ministers were sidelined by Jayalalithaa.

On the expected lines, the party offered tickets to the sons of leaders, beginning with OPS’ son P Ravindranath Kumar (Theni). Madurai North MLA Rajan Chellappa’s son, VVR Raj Satyan, gets the prestigious Madurai seat, while former speaker P H Pandian’s son and former RS MP, P H Manoj Pandian, gets Tirunelveli. Pandian, a key member of erstwhile OPS camp, is organizing secretary of the party. The rest of the nominees are newcomers.

The party is pinning hopes on the western and northern belt. Despite hectic parleys by the BJP leadership until the eleventh hour, seeking Krishnagiri and Erode, the AIADMK has not given up its hold in the west but for the Coimbatore seat. The AIADMK holds 45 assembly seats in the region. Party organizing secretary and a member of the seat-sharing committee, JCD Prabakar, said the party considered the performance of the allies over the last decade for seat allocation. “The local dynamics, communal support from partners, and our votebank were kept in mind. There is no grumbling. Every ally is happy,” the leader said.