The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday fielded some of its prominent leaders, including State president K. Annamalai, Union Minister of State L. Murugan and former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu. The party released its first list of nine candidates. Overall, the BJP, which is heading an alliance, will enter the fray in 20 seats in the State.
Mr. Annamalai, who undertook the ‘En Mann En Makkal’ yatra stretched over several months, will enter the fray from Coimbatore, a seat where the BJP has significant presence. He will take on the DMK’s Ganapathy P. Rajkumar and the AIADMK’s Singai G. Ramachandran, apart from the Naam Tamilar Katchi candidate. Initially, Mr. Annamalai was reluctant to contest in the parliamentary elections and had set his eyes on campaigning across Tamil Nadu. However, the party chose to field him in Coimbatore after also having considered him for the Karur seat. He had unsuccessfully contested in the 2021 Assembly elections from Aravakurichi in Karur district.
