Breaking the deadlock over allocation of constituencies, the Congress-DMK alliance has entered poll-battle mode, finalising candidates for all 30 seats in the Union Territory for the May 16 Assembly elections.
While the DMK, which has been allocated nine seats in the alliance, had put out its list on Saturday barely hours ahead of its party president M. Karunanidhi’s arrival in the city to address a rally in support of the candidates, the Congress’s central election committee released its list in Delhi in a late night announcement on Saturday.
The Congress campaign to recapture power from the AINRC will primarily be led by PCC president A. Nammasivayam (Villianur), former Chief Minister V. Vaithilingam (Kamaraj Nagar) and K. Lakshminarayanan (Raj Bhavan).
ADVERTISEMENT
What is significant in the Congress list is that five of the seven sitting MLAs have retained the same seats while Theni C. Djeacoumar who is the Mangalam MLA and PRN Thirumurugan, legislator from Karaikal North have been sidelined.
This time, Mangalam has been allocated to the DMK (Sun Kumaravel) while the Congress has fielded R.P. Chandramohan in Karaikal North.
The lone woman candidate in the list is V. Vizeaveny for the Nettapakkam reserved constituency.
ADVERTISEMENT
In fielding sitting MLA K. Lakshminarayanan in Raj Bhavan, the Congress is taking the fight to the camp of its rivals, especially the AIADMK which has chosen former Rajya Sabha MP P. Kannan for the seat.
In Kadirgamam and Indira Nagar — one of which is likely to be contested by Chief Minister N. Rangasamy — the Congress has fielded A. Sivashanmugam and V. Aroumugam.
The other nominees are MOHF Shahjahan (Kalapet), V.P. Sivakozhundu (Lawspet), A. John Kumar (Nellithope), T. Jayamurthy (Ariankuppam), M. Kandasamy (Embalam) and E. Theepanjan (Oussudu).
In the battle for seven enclaves, E. Valsaraj is the Congress candidate in Mahe and Malladi Krishna Rao the choice for Yanam.
Mr. Valasaraj is bidding for his seventh successive win from Mahe while Mr. Rao who has previously won the seat four times (twice as Independent) in five attempts, is seeking popular mandate for the third time on a Congress ticket.
In Karaikal, the Congress has fielded A. Marimuthu in Nedungadu (reserved constituency) and R. Kamalakannan in Thirunallar.
The candidature also reflects a resolve to accommodate as far as possible those leaders who came into the Congress fold after quitting their party. Prominent among them being former AINRC MLA and Minister P. Angalane who had quit the AINRC to protest “sustained neglect” of the Thirubuvanai (Reserved) constituency from where he has won in successive elections — in 2001, 2006 and 2011.
Mr. Angalane has been fielded in Thirubuvanai where he had previously won on the Congress ticket in 2001 and 2006, before he switched camp to align with the break-away AINRC floated by Mr. Rangasamy in 2011. M.N.R. Balan is another AINRC drop-out who has been given a seat (Ozhukarai) while R.K.R. Anantharaman, who moved in from the PMK, has been rewarded with the Manavely seat.