DMK candidate list

Late on Sunday, the DMK announced its candidate list. As expected, the Chief Minister’s son Azhagiri has been announced as the candidate for the Madurai Lok Sabha seat. The party has dropped 7 sitting MPs and a few of the candidates like TR Balu and Raja have changed their seats following delimitation. Two actors (Napolean and Ritheesh) have featured in the list. According to the Hindu,

The list of DMK candidates for the 21 constituencies, released by Mr. Karunanidhi on Sunday, has 12 new faces including two film actors, D.Napoleon (former MLA) and J.K.Ritheesh and two women. Seven sitting MPs, including four Union Ministers — Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, K.Venkatapathy, S. Regupathy and Radhika Selvi — do not find a place in the list. Mr Karunanidhi told reporters that the sitting MPs have opted out to pave way for the new faces. He said he would launch the campaign in Chennai on April 18.

1.Kanyakumai –Helen Davidson
2.Tuticorin –S R Jeyadurai
3.Ramanathapuram –K Sivakumar (a) JK Ritheesh
4.Madurai –M K Azhagiri
5.Tanjavur –SS Palanimackam
6.Nagapattinam (res) –AKS Vijayan
7.Perambalur –D Napolean
8.Karur –K C Palanisamy
9.Pollachi –M Shanmugasundaram
10.Nilgiris (res) –A Raja
11.Namakkal –S Gandhiselvan
12.Kallakurichi –Adi Shankar
13.Tiruvannamalai –T Venugopal
14.Dharmapuri –Thamaraichelvan
15.Krishnagiri –EG Sukavanam
16.Arakonam –S Jegathratchagan
17.Sriperumbudur –T R Baalu
18.Tiruvallore (res) –Gayathri Sridharan
19.North Chennai –TKS Elangovan
20.Central Chennai –Dayanidhi Maran
21.South Chennai –R S Barathy.

TN ’09 Alliances

Alliances have always played an important part in Tamil Nadu elections. The two Dravidian parties are dependent on alliances to remain dominant. This time, the DMK has allied itself with Congress, VCK and IUML. The Left parties, MDMK and PMK have moved over to the ADMK front. Vijaykanth’s DMDK is contesting alone as it did in the last assembly elections and BJP and other smaller parties are contesting separately.

The ADMK is banking on the strong anti-incumbancy that is present in Tamil Nadu to capture a large share of seats. Moreover, PMK and Left parties have added to ADMK front’s strength. The DMK front has already completed their seat sharing agreement. However, the ADMK is still facing some issues with its seat adjustments with CPM and MDMK.

After initial speculation that Vijaykanth was going to align with the UPA, he decided to go it alone. While, the Lok Sabha elections may not be a huge deal for DMDK, its performance is going to be closely watched to see if it can retain or even increase its share from the Assembly elections of ’06. Given that Tamil Nadu elections always throws up a decisive mandate, it will be an interesting election to follow.

Lok Sabha Election ’09

Well there is nothing more interesting in Tamil Nadu than the elections. The campaign for the next Lok Sabha elections is ready to start. Given the tremedous support this blog received for covering the previous assembly elections, I decided to blog again covering elections 2009. While, I plan to cover elections in other states as well, the Tamil Nadu campaign will receive the most prominent coverage. Given Tamil Nadu’s verdict played an important part in the government formation last time, I would expect it to be no different this time around as well. With the alliance partners and seat sharing almost finalized for the two major dravidan parties, campaign is all set to start. Stay tuned for coverage of elections ’09.