Chief Minister and All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa on Friday announced the party's Mayoral candidates for all ten municipal corporations in the State.
Later the CPI (M), one of the allies of the AIADMK, was informed that the list was subject to change.
She also nominated former MLA M. Paranjothi as the candidate for the Tiruchi (West) constituency and A. Venkateswaran, its Puducherry unit treasurer, the candidate for the Indira Nagar constituency in the Union Territory.
Mr. Paranjothi was elected from the Srirangam constituency in the 2006 Assembly elections. The constituency is now held by Ms. Jayalalithaa.
As per the first list of the AIADMK, six of the ten candidates are women. Former MLA Saidai S. Duraisamy, who lost to former Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in the Assembly election, is the candidate for the Chennai Corporation.
Former Minister S.M. Velusamy is the candidate for the Coimbatore Corporation, former MP V.V. Rajan Chellapa (Madurai), M.S.R Jaya (Tiruchi), P. Karthiyaini (Vellore), S. Soundappan (Salem), women's wing secretary of Erode town Mallika Paramasivam (Erode) , women's wing deputy secretary A. Vishalakshi (Tirupur), party's general council member Vijila Sathyanand (Tirunelveli) and L. Sasikala Pushpa (Tuticorin).
On Friday evening, leaders of the CPI (M) and CPI met the committee constituted by Ms. Jayalalithaa to hold talks with allies.
“We have been told that the list is not final. We will continue to talk and the list is subject to change,” said CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan, who held the first round of talks with AIADMK team, comprising Finance Minister O. Pannnerselvam, Agriculture Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan and Electricity Minister R. Viswanathan.
Mr. Ramakrishnan, who was accompanied by party MP T.K. Rengarajan, said that his party also had constituted a four-member committee, comprising MLAs K. Balakrishnan, K. Thangavel and secretariat members P. Sampath and Noor Mohamed. It would meet the AIADMK team again on Saturday.
Asked whether they had sought for allocation of any particular corporation, Mr. Ramakrishnan said that all these issues would come up for discussion when the committee members met.
To a question whether other alliance partners, including the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by actor Vijayakant was part of the alliance in the local body polls, Mr. Ramakrishan said they would also join the talks. CPI State secretary D. Pandian also met the AIADMK team and said a committee constituted by his party would meet the AIADMK team for identification of seats.
Mr. Pandian said that he and deputy secretary C. Mahendran had come to meet the AIADMK leaders because the members of the committee constituted by his party were not available in Chennai.
Asked whether he was upset with the unilateral announcement of the AIADMK candidates, he said: “They have announced their decision and we have expressed our opinion. If I am upset I would have told you about it.”
