Jaya drops 6 sitting MPs from LS candidate list

In a bid to infuse new blood into the AIADMK, party supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha on Monday dropped six sitting MPs out of the nine from the list of 40 named for contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

She has also ensured that all contestants are graduates.

While announcing several new faces, Jayalalitha renominated sitting Lok Sabha MP M Thambidurai from the Karur seat, P Kumar (Tiruchirappalli), and P Venugopal (Thiruvallur).

Incidentally, two MPs, C Rajendran and K Sugumar, seem to have been affected by the online portal Cobrapost’s sting operation.

The two had figured in the Cobrapost expose that showed 11 MPs willing to give recommendation letters to a ficticious oil firm for a price.

Of the 40 candidates, 15 have a law degree, four are doctors and rest are graduates.
Jayalalitha said seat sharing talks with the CPI and the CPM were on. “Once the seat sharing is finalised and the seats identified, some of the AIADMK candidates will be withdrawn to enable the allies to field their candidates,” she added.