DMK first list of candidates out; Raja, Maran to contest

Chennai, March 10: Dravida Munnetra kazhakam, regional party in Tamil Nadu, released its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls on Monday.

Surprisingly, the list has two former Union ministers who are being investigated for corruption when they handled the telecom portfolio. A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran will both run for Parliament from the constituencies they won in the last election in 2009.

The party chief Karunanidhi's son MK Alagiri will not contest in the polls. The party had suspended him in January for indiscipline.

Karunanidhi's son MK Alagiri will not contest in the polls

"Don't hurt me by asking about Alagiri," said Mr Karunanidhi to reporters as he announced the regional party's first list of candidates.

Alagiri is the sitting MP from Madurai. His suspension was seen as a fallout of his alleged rivalry with his sibling MK Stalin who is projected as Karuna's successor in the party.

Maran is being investigated by the CBI for allegedly misusing his office as Telecom Minister to pressurize the sale of Aircel to a Malaysian firm whose owner then made a large investment in Sun Networks, owned by Maran's brother.

Raja, who replaced Maran as Telecom Minister, is accused of accepting large bribes to help ineligible firms get mobile network licenses at throwaway prices in 2008.

Karunandihi's daughter, Kanimozhi, was also jailed on charges that a television channel partly owned by her was used to route a kickback for Mr Raja.

Oneindia News