The AIADMK on Monday decided to go it alone in Puducherry and has fielded candidates for all 30 seats, ruling out the possibility of an alliance in the Union Territory.
The AIADMK is also the first party to finalise the list of candidates for all Assembly segments in the UT.
Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament P. Kannan who had recently joined the AIADMK will contest from Raj Bhavan constituency in the city.
Out of 30 candidates in the list announced by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalithaa in Chennai on Monday, all five sitting MLAs find a place and will contest in the same constituencies.
The party has also given ticket to a lone woman contestant — M. Mahadevi in Mannadipet, a rural segment.
With an aim to wrest back Karaikal enclave, once a stronghold of the AIADMK, the party has given tickets to former MLAs and heavyweights in all the five constituencies.
Independent MLA V.M.C. Sivakumar who had joined the AIADMK on Sunday would contest from Neravy T.R. Pattinam and V.K. Ganapathy, former Congress MLA from Karaikal (South).
Most political functionaries from other parties who had defected from other parties to the AIADMK have also been given tickets.
In the 2011 Assembly elections, the AIADMK contested in alliance with the ruling AINRC. However, the AIADMK was relegated to the Opposition bench in the 30-member House, after N. Rangasamy reneged on his word relating to sharing power and formed a government with the support of an Independent MLA — VMC Sivakumar.
The AIADMK has formed the Government in 1974 (in alliance with Congress) and 1977 (in alliance with the Janata Party).
