TN elections: AIADMK releases first list of 23 candidates

Tamil Nadu's main Opposition party AIADMK released its first list of 23 candidates for the April 23 Assembly polls, on Wednesday (March 25).

The party general secretary, Edappadi K Palaniswami, will again contest from his home turf of Edappadi constituency in Salem district.

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The AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday (March 23) had finalised its seat-sharing arrangement. The AIADMK would contest 178 seats, while BJP gets 27, PMK in 18, and AMMK 11.

23 candidates in first list

In this first list, AIADMK has retained its top leaders, including K P Munusamy, Dindigul C Sreenivasan, RB Udhayakumar and Natham R Viswanathan. It has named the western region's star leaders SP Velumani, P Thangamani from Thondamuthur and Kumarapalayam.

Deputy general secretary KP Munusamy will contest from Veppanahalli, treasurer Dindigul C Srinivasan from Dindigul, and former minister C Ve Shanmugam shifted to Mailam from Villupuram. The party’s senior leaders retained their stronghold to ensure continuity amid the NDA alliance - S P Velumani (Thondamuthur), D Jayakumar (Royapuram), Sellur K Raju (Madurai West), and C Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai).

Also read: Can anti-incumbency alone bring AIADMK back to power in Tamil Nadu?

Palaniswami described AIADMK's alliance as one marked by "bonding" and called it a "victorious" combine, expressing confidence it would win at least 210 of Tamil Nadu's 234 assembly seats. "The alliance will win and AIADMK will form the government," he asserted.

Although Tamil nationalist NTK had already released its list of candidates for all the 234 seats, AIADMK is the first major party in the state to release its list of candidates, albeit in part.

Poll promises

On Tuesday, AIADMK released a comprehensive manifesto with 297 promises for the upcoming elections. The party announced free refrigerators for ration cardholders with rice category if the party comes to power.

Palaniswami also assured one kilo of dal and one litre of cooking oil for free to rice ration cardholders, and a one-time grant of Rs 10,000 to every family to manage tax burden and price rise.

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In February, on the occasion of the party’s late leader J Jayalalithaa’s birthday, Palaniswami announced a sweeping set of welfare promises, including Monthly unemployment assistance, relief for fishermen during fishing ban, Pongal cash bonus, enhanced free power for weavers and loan waiver for street vendors.