The AIADMK released its second list of nominees on Thursday, March 21, 2024, for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, and stuck to its approach of fielding mostly new-comers. The list was made public by party general secretary, Edappadi K. Palaniswami. The party’s first list of candidates was released on March 20, also containing mostly new faces.
Of the 17 candidates named by the party including one in Puducherry, R. Kumaraguru, a three-time legislator who defeated late DMDK leader ‘Captain’ Vijayakant in Ulundurpet during the 2016 Assembly polls, was one of only three known figures. The other two were: Singai G. Ramachandran, the party’s IT wing head, and Shimla Muthuchozhan, daughter-in-law of DMK’s former Minister, S.P. Sarguna Pandian, who joined the AIADMK a few weeks ago. Ms Muthuchozhan is the only woman nominee of the 33 candidates announced by the AIADMK.
Of 39 Lok Sabha constituencies, the Dravidian major will contest in 32 seats, leaving five seats to its ally, DMDK and one each to Puthiya Tamilagam and the Social Democratic Party of India.
Mr. Kumaraguru, the party’s candidate in Kallakurichi, had scored a hattrick in the Assembly polls by winning in 2006 (Thirunavalur) and 2011 (Ulundurpettai) apart from in 2016. Three years ago, he lost to the DMK’s A.J. Manikannan by a margin of about 5,000 votes.
Mr. Ramachandran and Ms. Muthuchozhan will face the electorate of Coimbatore and Tirunelveli. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, Mr. Ramachandran is the son of former AIADMK MLA Singai Govindarasu. When the party’s late leader Jayalalithaa was alive, he was made IT wing secretary but in March 2016, he was replaced with ‘Aspire’ K. Swaminathan. At the time of the party’s split in February 2017, Mr Ramachandran was with the camp led by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam. Ms. Muthuchozhan took on Jayalalithaa in the R.K. Nagar constituency during the 2016 Assembly election and lost by a margin of nearly 40,000 votes.
The remaining candidates are: G. Premkumar (Sriperunpudur); S. Pasupathi (Vellore); R. Asokan (Dharmapuri); M. Kaliyaperumal (Tiruvannamalai); P. Arunachalam (Tiruppur); Karthik Appusamy alias A. Karthikeyan (Pollachi); P. Karuppiah (Tiruchi); N.D. Chandramohan (Perambalur); P. Babu (Mayiladuthurai); Panagudi A. Xavierdoss (Sivaganga); R. Sivasami Velumani (Thoothukudi); Basiliyan Nazareth (Kanniyakumari) and D. Lokesh Tamilselvan (Nilgiris) (reserved for Scheduled Castes). Mr. Lokesh Tamilselvan is the son of former Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal and he runs a computer firm in Salem. G. Tamilvendan will contest from Puducherry.
For the Vilavancode assembly by-poll, the party has nominated U. Rani, the women’s wing deputy secretary.
