AIADMK to begin poll campaign in Madurai on Monday

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa waving to party supporters after releasing the candidate list for the Lok Sabha polls in Chennai. File photo

The AIADMK will kick start its campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from two famous temples in the district on Monday evening.

AIADMK will be the first party in the State to hit the roads not only much ahead of the opposition parties but also before concluding the seat-sharing arrangement with its alliance parties – the CPI (M) and the CPI.

The campaign for the Madurai Lok Sabha seat will commence at the Yoga Narasimha Perumal Temple at Narasingam near Othakkadai at 3.30 p.m.

Minister for Cooperation and party’s urban district secretary K. Raju, along with MLAs and elected representatives of local bodies, including Madurai Mayor V.V. Rajan Chellappa, will seek votes for the candidate R. Gopalakrishnan (Madurai).

Mr. Gopalakrishnan, who was elected from ward 4 of Madurai Corporation and subsequently became the Deputy Mayor, will resign from the posts of councillor and Deputy Mayor on Monday morning before starting his campaign, party sources said on Sunday.

For D. Radhakrishnan (Virudhunagar), who is the sitting chairperson of Sivakasi panchayat union, the campaign will begin from Subramaniaswamy Temple at Tirupparankundram in Madurai district. The Tirupparankundram and Tirumangalam Assembly segments of Madurai district come under the Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency.

The Minister for Information and Special Schemes Implementation and the party’s Virudhunagar district secretary, K.T. Rajendra Balaji, along with Madurai rural district secretary M. Muthuramalingam will seek votes for Mr. Radhakrishnan.

Incidentally, both the Lok Sabha seats are among the wish list of CPI (M).

The CPI (M) would not be joining the campaign, its Madurai urban district secretary, B. Vikraman, said. The CPI rural district secretary, K. Kalidoss, said instructions regarding participation in the campaign were yet to come from the party high command. However, the two DMDK MLAs, R. Sundarrajan (Madurai Central) and R. Pandiarajan (Virudhunagar), who have been supporting the ruling party, said that they would take part in the campaign.

AIADMK sources said that the party general secretary, Jayalalithaa, had announced that she will withdraw her candidates from those seats that are given to the alliance parties after finalising the seat-sharing talks.