CPI(M) re-nominates author Venkatesan from Madurai for Lok Sabha polls

Chennai: The CPI(M) on Friday renominated celebrated Tamil author Su Venkatesan from Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, while naming district secretary R Sachidanandam as the candidate from the neighbouring Dindigul segment.

The party was allotted two seats to contest the Lok Sabha polls in the DMK alliance much like 2019, but got Madurai and Dindigul instead of Coimbatore, where the DMK will field its own candidate.

Venkatesan, the Lok Sabha MP from Madurai, will seek re-election from the ancient city, according to the candidates list announced by the CPI(M). The candidate in Dindigul, from where the DMK MP P Velusamy won with a record margin of 5.38 lakh in 2019, is Sachidanandam.

Venkatesan, whose novel Kaaval Kottam that captured 600 years of history of Madurai between 1310 and 1920 won the Sahitya Akademi award for the year 2011, is a popular writer whose most recent work Velpari has become a household name in Tamil Nadu.

P R Natarajan, who won from Coimbatore in 2019 and was the CPI(M) leader in Lok Sabha, is not contesting this time as his seat was not allotted to the party.