Tamil Nadu local elections: 'Election King' K Padmarajan again files papers for poll

Coimbatore, Jan 29: K Padmarajan, who is known by the moniker 'Election King', filed nomination for the local body elections which is scheduled to be held on February 19.

With the date for filing nominations for local body elections being kick-started today, Padmarajan was first among the contestants to file the papers. This is the 227th time he is filing the papers.

Since 1988, the homoeopathic doctor-turned-businessman filed nominations in elections in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and New Delhi.

With the highest number of contests, he found the place in record books as the most unsuccessful candidate.

Padmarajan first contested from Mettur in 1986 as an independent and from there he contested against Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Lucknow), Manmohan Singh, P V Narasimha Rao (Nandyal), Pranab Mukherjee, Pratibha Patil, K R Narayanan and A P J Abdul Kalam.

The 62-year-old Padmarajan is now contesting from Verakkalpudur (ward-2).

By his own admission, he prays for his own failure as he wants to remain in the history books as the person who lost the highest number of elections. "I don't spent any amount for campaigning but I lost nearly Rs 20 lakh for filing nominations in the elections," he had told The Times of India in 2019. PTI