Tamil Nadu assembly election 2021: AIADMK plays it safe, refuses seats to three ministers

Chennai, Mar 10: Eyeing a record straight third term, the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday announced its second list of 171 candidates for the April 6 Assembly polls, re-nominating 23 ministers and 45 sitting MLAs for the April 6 assembly polls.

While 14 women candidates have made it to the list, three ministers. However, seats have not been allocated to many newcomers except for- Nilofer Kafeel (labour), G Baskaran (khadi and village industries) and S Valarmathi (backward classes and minorities welfare) .

According to report, the party is overall happy with the choices as many district secretaries and office bearers have been given a chance.

Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam and two ministers were already given seats in the party's first list.

The party has chosen to renominate several of its sitting MLAs.Two party seniors and current Rajya Sabha members, K P Munusamy and R Vaithilingam, will face the polls from Vepanahalli and Orathanad.

While Munusamy hails from the vanniyar community, Vaithilingam belongs to thevar caste. Speaker P Dhanapal and deputy Speaker Pollachi V Jayaraman retained their Avanishi and Pollachi seats.

"CM and deputy CM played a key role in selection of candidates, giving tickets to loyalists and endorsing new faces, considering their winnability, popularity, and performance," a senior minister said.

Together with its first list of six candidates, the AIADMK would be in fray in 182 constituencies and its partners the PMK (23) and BJP (20) in 43 while nine more seats are yet to be allocated out of the total 234 segments. The party allotted five seats to a couple of local outfits but they will contest from its Two Leaves symbol only.

The 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls will be a watershed election for the AIADMK since this is the first state polls after the demise of its supremo J Jayalalithaa who had led the party to back-to-back wins in 2011 and 2016.

Following the legacy of Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK has now announced seats for most constituencies stealing a march over arch-rival DMK which is yet to release its list of nominees.

Meanwhile, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Spokesperson TKS Elangovan claimed that AIADMK has again given the seats to all corrupt candidates in the state.

"All corrupt people have been given seats again by the AIADMK. Our candidates will begin filling nominations from 12th March after the names of all candidates are released," he said.