Tamil Nadu Assembly Polls: Key candidates and battlegrounds

From Kamal Haasan and Khushbu to Thousand Lights and Coimbatore South, all you need to know about the star candidates in the TN polls

Tamil Nadu is set to go to polls on April 6 in a single phase, with campaigning by major political players already in full swing in the state.

In the upcoming Assembly elections, the DMK and Congress will be contesting together, whilst the BJP and the AIADMK will be fighting as part of the NDA. Hoping for a comeback, the DMK on March 12 named 173 candidates and the party will be fighting AIADMK in over 100 seats. The BJP on Sunday said that they will contest 20 seats in the polls.

Here are the key battleground constituencies to watch out for in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections:

Thousand Lights

DMK leader Dr Ezhilan, who was M Karunanidhi's physician and a vehement opponent of NEET, is being fielded from Thousand Lights, which was represented by M K Stalin four times. Ezhilan's father, economist M Naganathan, is the brain behind DMK's colour television promise that sealed the election in the party's favour in 2006. The constituency is considered a DMK stronghold due to the presence of a large Muslim population. The Congress has fielded Mayura S Jayakumar, who was its youth wing chief in the state.

Also Read | DMK names candidates for 173 seats; to fight rival AIADMK in over 100 seats in Tamil Nadu assembly election

Contesting for the same seat from the BJP is Khushbu Sundar. She is a former actor and Congress spokesperson, who shifted to the BJP only recently citing insult by the Congress. In 2010, she entered politics by joining the DMK. She later quit the party and joined Congress in 2014. This would be her electoral debut. She has had an ardent fanbase in the state from her acting days and a temple was built in the early 21st century with her as a deity.

Coimbatore South

The fight for the urban seat of Coimbatore (South) got interesting on Friday with Makkal Needhi Maiam President and actor Kamal Haasan deciding to fight from the constituency in the industrial city. Haasan, who projects himself as an alternative to the Dravidian majors, will, however, face candidates from the Congress and the BJP, not the DMK and the AIADMK. Kamal Haasan's decision to choose a seat in Coimbatore stems from the fact that his party nominee, R Mahendran, had polled over 1.4 lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In this Assembly constituency, Mahendran had secured over 16 per cent of the votes polled.

BJP Women's Wing chief Vanathi Srinivasan is being pitted against Kamal Haasan in the constituency. Srinivasan was an active member of ABVP whilst she was a student in Coimbatore and is a lawyer by training. She is one of the longest serving members of the BJP in Tamil Nadu and has been a member since 1993. She contested in the 2016 Assembly election, but lost to AIADMK’s Amman K. Arjunan.

Also Read | BJP gives ticket to ex-IPS officer Annamalai; Vanathi to face-off with Kamal Haasan

Aravakuruchi

Seven months after he joined the BJP in Tamil Nadu, former Karnataka-cadre IPS officer K Annamalai was on Sunday named as the party's candidate for Aravakurichi assembly constituency that will go to polls on April 6. The contest in Aravakurichi, from where Annamalai will make his electoral debut, will also be interesting as it is the former IPS officer's native constituency.

Aravakurichi is currently represented by V Senthil Balaji, who won the seat in the by-election held in 2019 by a huge margin. Balaji, who was Transport Minister in J Jayalalithaa government, joined the DMK in 2018 after being disqualified as a legislator for owing allegiance to T T V Dhinakaran.

He will take on DMK's R Elango and Mohammed Hanif Saheel of MNM, and P S N Thangavel of AMMK.

All you need to know about 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections

Key candidates in the upcoming elections:

M K Stalin

M K Stalin is seeking re-election from Kolathur, a constituency he represents since 2011. DMK president M K Stalin is the son of former chief minister late M Karunanidhi. Stalin started his political career early and won for the first time from Thousand Light constituency in Chennai in 1989. After which, he transitioned to become the Mayor of Chennai and later on the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu under his father M Karunanidhi. Stalin is currently the Leader of the Opposition and if the DMK-Congress alliance gains the majority vote in this elections, he will become the Chief Minister for the first time. AIADMK's Aadhi Rajaram, who lost to Stalin in 2001 in Thousand Lights, will take him on this time, in a different constituency.

Edappadi Palaniswami

Palamiswami is the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and took over as the CM after the death of enigmatic AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa. He is the joint coordinator of the party with O Panneerselvam. Palaniswami will be seeking re-election from the Edappadi constituency in Salem district after polling over 85.5 per cent of the votes in the previous Assembly election. In 1998, he also voted as the Lok Sabha member from the constituency. The constituency is an AIADMK stronghold and the chief minister is expecting a landslide victory. He is being challenged by 37-year-old T Sampath Kumar. The DMK feels a local man will give a tough fight to the CM.

Also Read | AIADMK promises to cut fuel prices, provide govt jobs in poll manifesto

O Panneerselvam

O Panneerselvam is the Deputy Chief Minister and joint coordinator of AIADMK. He was close to the late Jayalalithaa and often functioned as the CM when Jayalalithaa was unable to head the government. He will be contesting from Bodinayakannur constituency in the Theni district. The Deputy Chief Minister has never lost the seat since 2001 and is also expected to win the seat by a large margin. This is likely to be one of the most interesting fights this election as both OPS and Tamilselvan had the trust of late J Jayalalithaa but they never saw each other eye-to-eye.

Udhayanidhi Stalin

Udhayanidhi Stalin, an actor-producer, is a third-generation politician from the DMK's first family, following the footsteps of his grandfather, former DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, and father M K Stalin. He will be contesting from Chepauk-Tiruvallikeni, a constituency in the heart of Chennai and one that has favoured DMK in the past. Udhayanidhi's grandfather and late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi represented Chepauk, it was renamed as Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni in 2011 after delimitation, thrice from 1996 to 2011 before he moved to Tiruvarur, his native constituency in the fertile Cauvery Delta region. This Assembly election would be Udhayanidhi’s electoral debut.

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TTV Dhinakaran

V K Sasikala’s nephew and Amma Makkal Munettra Kazhagam (AMMK) founder T T V Dhinakaran is an MLA from Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar in Chennai. The constituency fell vacant after the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa. However, Dhinakaran will not be seeking re-election from the seat but will contest from Kovilpatti against local AIADMK strongman and Cabinet Minister K Raju. CPI(M)'s K Srinivasan is the candidate from the DMK alliance. AMMK has sealed an alliance with AIMIM and Vijayakanth’s DMDK. The party was formed as a breakaway faction of the AIADMK following the political vacuum created by the death of J Jayalalithaa.

(With inputs from PTI)