BJP sticks to old war horses in Tamil Nadu candidates list

BJP, which stitched an alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu for the upcoming general elections, released its list of candidates. Here is a look at the five candidates who will contest as nominees of the saffron party:

Pon Radhakrishnan
He will contest the Kanyakumari seat yet again. The Union minister of state won the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by a margin of 1,28,662 votes. The former president of Tamil Nadu state unit of the BJP has been a part of the RSS for decades.

Tamilisai Soundararajan
The president of the BJP in Tamil Nadu will contest the Tuticorin seat and take on DMK’s Kanimozhi. She has never been a legislator despite having contested two Assembly polls and one general election. Will she emerge victorious this time?

CP Radhakrishnan
The former state president of the party will contest the Coimbatore seat. A two-time member of the Lok Sabha, he has pushed for an alliance with the AIADMK in the past. In 1998, he won by a margin of over 1,50,000 votes, which was reduced to 55,000 in the 1999 elections. But in 2014, he lost the contest from the same constituency.

H Raja
The BJP national secretary will, once again, contest the Sivaganga parliamentary seat. Though the Congress list is yet to be released, speculation is rife that he will run against businessman-politician Karti Chidambaram. In 2014, both Raja and Karti lost to the AIADMK candidate. With the alliance in place, will his political fortunes take a turn for the better this time.

Nainar Nagendran
The former AIADMK man will contest the Ramanathapuram constituency. He got elected an AIADMK MLA in 2001 and 2011 from Tirunelveli constituency and lost by small margins in 2006 and 2016.