The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday announced candidates for eight constituencies in Tamil Nadu with anti-nuclear activist S.P. Udayakumar set to enter the fray in Kanyakumari.
The other two prominent faces of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)—M. Pushparayan and M.P. Jesuraj—will contest from Tuticorin and Tirunelveli respectively.
Keeping to its earlier promise of fielding candidates against MPs with corruption charges, the party also nominated J. Prabhakar, a social activist and coordinator for several voluntary organisations, to take on Dayanidhi Maran of the DMK in Chennai (Central).
In Coimbatore, long-term People’s Union for Civil Liberties activist, Pon Chandran, will enter the poll battle.
The Erode constituency has been allotted to K.K. Kumarasamy, who is involved in propagating organic farming whereas R. Chakravarthy Rajagopalan, founder of ‘Voice of Youth for Clean Environment’, will contest from Tirupur.
For Salem, the party will field Satheesh Kumar, a software engineer from BITS Pilani who now works with grassroot organisations in different fields.
He is also the youngest of the eight at 39 years. The average age of the eight contestants was 61.3 years.
Speaking to The Hindu, state convenor of the AAP, Christina Samy, said the party may contest in more than 20 constituencies.
While the first list had focused on seats in the Western and Southern regions of the State, it would be ensured that all regions of Tamil Nadu were adequately covered by the party in the Lok Sabha polls.
Ms. Samy said strength of contestants and organisational capacity in the particular constituency was important factors in choosing seats.
