Chief Minister V. Vaithilingam and three of his Cabinet colleagues are seeking election from new constituencies.
According to the candidate list released by party high command on Thursday, Mr. Vaithilingam would be contesting from the newly carved out Kamaraj Nagar constituency. Nettapakkam, from where he got elected six consecutive times, has become a reserved constituency.
While his Cabinet colleague M.O.H.F. Shahjahan would be contesting from Kalapet constituency leaving his previous constituency Lawspet to a fresher in politics V.P. Sivakozhundu, A. Namassivayam would be seeking election from Villianur as Ozhukarai, which he represented in 2006 election, had been given to the DMK.
Another Minister, M. Kandasamy, is contesting from Embalam (SC) because Bahour, from where he got elected in the last election, has been made a general constituency. Speaker R. Radhakrishnan has moved to Bahour following deletion of Kuruvinatham Assembly segment in the delimitation exercise.
While Home Minister E. Valsaraj and Revenue Minister Malladi Krishna Rao would be seeking re-election from Mahe and Yanam respectively, K. Lakshminarayan would contest from Raj Bhavan as Cassicade, which he represents in the present Assembly, has been merged with Raj Bhavan and the adjoining Muthialpet constituencies.
Other party candidates are M. Ponnusamy (Thirubhuvanai SC), C. Djeacoumar (Mangalam), V. Pethaperumal (Kadirgamam), V. Aroumugam (Indira Nagar), T. Jayamurthy ( Ariankuppam), S. Muthukumarasamy (Nettapakkam SC), R. Kamalakannan (Thirunallar) and P R N Thirumurugan (Karaikal North).
