Sons and daughters of leaders bag chunk of DMK, AIADMK tickets
Sons and daughters of prominent party leaders took away a significant chunk of the tickets given by the DMK as well as the AIADMK for the Lok Sabha elections.
While around 30% of the 20 DMK candidates went to the second generation, three of the AIADMK candidates were the next generation.
DMK
The DMK, which on March 15 announced its seat sharing arrangement with its allies for the Secular Progressive Alliance in 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry, declared the names of 20 candidates of the party on March 17. The DMK also released the names of candidates for the bye elections to the 18 constituencies.
Of the seven veterans and 13 debutants, there are 18 graduates including doctors, engineers, and advocates on the DMK list.
The three constituencies in Chennai went to the children of prominent leaders: North Chennai has been allocated to Dr Kalanidhi Veerasamy, son of former minister Arcot Veerasamy, Central Chennai has been given to Dayanidhi Maran, son of late union minister Murasoli Maran and South Chennai to Tamizhachi Thangapandian, daughter of late DMK minister Thangapandian and elder sister of former Minister Thangam Thennarasu.
Kanimozhi, daughter of late DMK president M Karunanidhi who has represented Parliament in Rajya Sabha, will contest the Lok Sabha seat for the first time. She will be contesting from Thoothukudi.
TM Kathir Anandh, son of DMK treasurer Duraimurugan is the candidate for Vellore, and former minister Ponmudi’s son D Gowtham Sigamani will contest from Kallakurichi constituency.
Former union minister S S Palanimanickam will recontest – after a gap in 2014 parliamentary polls — from the Thanjavur constituency, a seat that was given away to former highways minister T R Baalu.
A face on the list was former IT Minister A. Raja contesting from his stronghold, the Nilgiris (Reserved).
AIADMK
The AIADMK, which announced the seat sharing allocation with its allies on the morning of March 17, released the list of its candidates late in the evening.
While six have been re-nominated: P Venugopal, J Jayavardhan, K Maragadham, V Elumalai, C Mahendran and M Thambidurai, a total of 14 new faces will also enter the fray.
Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam’s son P Ravindranath will contest from Theni, former speaker PH Pandian’s son Manoj Pandian has been given a ticket to contest from Tirunelveli, Jayavaradhan, son of state fisheries minister D Jayakumar, will fight for a seat from Chennai South and VVR Raja Sathyan, son of Rajan Chellappa, will contest from Madurai.
If late AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa fielded four women candidates from the 39 seats that the party contested in 2014, one woman has been given  ticket from the 20 seats that the party is contesting for the upcoming polls. The AIADMK is in alliance with the BJP, PMK, DMDK, G K Vaasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress, Puthiya Tamilagam, New Justice Party and All India N R Congress (Puducherry). In 2014, the AIADMK contesting alone won 37 of the total 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, while DMK lost from all the constituencies. Both the DMK and the AIADMK announced their candidates list for the bye elections to 18 constituencies too, which would go to polls along with the parliamentary elections on April 18.
Surprisingly, the Andipatti by-election would see DMK’s Maharajan fight against his brother Logirajan of the AIADMK. S Jothi Balakrishna Reddy, wife of former minister P Balakrishna Reddy, who had resigned earlier this years following a conviction in a criminal case, has been given the Hosur seat — a constituency that her husband represented.
