Top contest of TN polls 2016: Ex-IPS officer Nataraj vs 'Karate' Thiagarajan

The constituency of Mylapore, which falls under the Chennai South Lok Sabha seat, will see retired IPS officer R Nataraj locking horns with DMK-Congress alliance's Karate R Thiagarajan, BJP's Karu Nagarajan, PWF's A S Munavar Basha of the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) and PMK's N Suresh Kumar.

Date of polling: Mylapore, which is constituency No. 25, will go to polls on May 16 along with the rest 233 Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu. The results will be on May 19.

2011 election result: The AIADMK's R Rajalakshmi defeated the Congress's KV Thangakabalu by 29,204 votes [56 per cent to 35.6 per cent vote share]. The BJP's Vanathi Srinivasan finished a distant third with 6,911 votes (4.8 per cent vote-share).

R Nataraj (AIADMK)

Nataraj, a 1975-batch IPS officer, was known for his better initiatives during his 36-year-old tenure in the police department. He was appointed as the chairman of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission after retirement.

The former IPS officer served in various positions, including Commissioner of Police - Chennai city, Deputy Inspector General of Police - CRPF, ADGP - Special Task Force, ADGP and Director General - Prisons, Head of Fire & Rescue Department and others.

Nataraj has degrees in Physics, Public Administration and Law.

Nataraj joined the AIADMK in April 2014 after retiring as the TNPSC chairman. He was expelled from the party for 'anti-party activities' in a case of mistaken identity and was brought back in December last year. He was announced as the party's nominee from Mylapore constituency on April 4.

Karata R Thiagarajan (Congress)

Karate R Thiagarajan is the president of the Karate Association of India, one of the two bodies running Karate in India.

Earlier, he was the president of the All India Karate-Do Federation but was removed for alleged misappropriation of funds. He was elected to the Chennai Corporation as an AIADMK counciller and became the deputy mayor in-charge of Chennai corporation.

Thiagarajan was expelled from the AIADMK in 2005 after a four-year stint on charges of anti-party activities and he went into hiding for over six months. He resurfaced before the 2006 Assembly election and rejoined the Congress. He had joined the Congress in 1986 and quit it in 1996 and joined the TMC where he was for two years till 1998.

A S Munavar Basha (TMC)

Munavar Basha is the general secretary of the TMC since 2014 and the founder of Annai Ullam, an old-age home in Kodambakkam. He has also served in various position in the Congress in the 1970s and 1980s. Basha, 62, is known to be an admirer of late Tamil Congress leader K Kamaraj.

Karu Nagarajan (BJP)

Karu Nagarajan, general secretary of the All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK), a Nadar caste-based party, joined the BJP in January this year. The AISMK had joined the NDA in February for this year's election but later returned to the AIADMK's fold. Nagarajan was, however, expelled from the AISMK led by actor-politician R Sharathkumar.

N Suresh Kumar (PMK)

N Suresh Kumar was nominated from Mylapore later to replace Meenakshi Anand as the PMK candidate.

Both the AIADMK and DMK have won the Mylapore seat five times while the Congress have won it twice and the BJP once.