The Congress has played it safe in the central region banking on legacy, experience, and resource rather than opting for flamboyance in choosing its candidates for the coming Assembly elections.
If the party has chosen the former MP P.V. Rajendran to contest the Vedaranyam seat for the fourth time, national players such as former All India Secretary of the Youth Congress and present general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee K. Mahendran, the former private secretary to the former Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar T.R. Loganathan have found themselves in the list that has a place for the scion of the former Union Minister Su. Thirunavukkarasar.
Mr. Rajendran (61), who will test the waters from Vedaranyam, had won the seat twice though he had contested thrice having lost one election. He had represented the Mayiladuthurai constituency in the Lok Sabha having been elected in 1998 from there. A member of the All India Congress Committee, Mr. Rajendran is a seasoned politician who can take along alliance partners smoothly.
Coming from a traditional Congress family, Jerome Arockiaraj (53) who has been given the ticket for Tiruchi East constituency has been enjoying an unhindered stint as the Tiruchi City Congress president from 2001 to now. His uncle L. Adaikalaraj represented Tiruchi in the Lok Sabha for four terms from 1984. Mr. Jerome had contested unsuccessfully for the Srirangam Assembly constituency in 2006 and is a strident supporter of TNCC president E.V.K.S. Elangovan.
Mr. Jerome will have to battle it out against Vellamandi Natarajan of the AIADMK, which wrested the seat from the DMK in the 2011 election, and S. Rohaiyaah Sheikmohamed of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam – a part of the DMDK-headed People’s Welfare Front.
The Congress has nominated S.M.P. Duraivelan (52) to the Nannilam constituency to take on Food Minister and AIADMK strongman R. Kamaraj. A native of Koradachery in Tiruvarur, Mr. Duraivelan’s maternal grandfather M.D. Tyagaraja Pillai had represented Nannilam thrice in the State Assembly.
For Musiri constituency, the party has nominated advocate Vijaya Babu (49), the State vice-president of the Advocates' Wing of the party. She had been a councillor in Tiruchi and her husband R.C. Babu, the Tiruchi South District Congress president, is known to be a loyalist of the former Union Minister P. Chidambaram.
A long-time AICC member, G. Rajendran (66) of Melanikuzhi in Ariyalur district has been given the ticket for the Jayamkondam seat. He is the District Congress Committee president and had been the president of the erstwhile undivided Tiruchi district unit of the Youth Congress for eight years from 1981. He is an organisation player who has climbed the ranks gradually.
Congress candidate for the Pattukkottai seat being held by the party is Mr. Mahendran (39) of Thamarankkottai in Thanjavur district and he brings a national flavour to the contest. He had served the party as All India secretary of the Youth Congress and as the general secretary of the State unit youth wing. He had taken care of the Youth Wing affairs in Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland. He had unsuccessfully contested the Peravoorani constituency in 2011 losing narrowly.
Karur district president of the party for the past 10 years, “Bank Subramanian (61)” is the Congress candidate for Karur seat. A former employee with the Karur Vysya Bank, he quit his job in 1996 to join the Congress.
The party’s Papanasam constituency candidate T.R. Loganathan (63) of Thathuvanchery in Thanjavur district is the son of freedom fighter and former MLA Ramamirtha Thondaiman. He had earlier contested elections from the Tiruvidaimarudur constituency and had lost. Having enjoyed the blessings of Mr. Aiyar, Mr. Loganathan was a Director with the State Bank of India from 2011 to 2014 and is now the party's Thanjavur North unit president.
Mr. Thirunavukkarasar has paved the way for his son S.T. Ramachandran (36), an MBA graduate, to enter the electoral fray from his fiefdom Aranthangi. Mr. Ramachandran is the Ramanathapuram District Youth Congress general secretary.
