The BJP has decided to field well-known faces, including its State unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan, in the five Lok Sabha constituencies allotted to it in the AIADMK-led alliance.
Though the party is yet to release the official list of candidates, its national secretary H. Raja said in Karaikudi on Wednesday evening that Union Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan would be fielded again in Kanniyakumari. The other candidates, he said, were Ms. Soundararajan in Thoothukudi, C.P. Radhakrishnan in Coimbatore, former AIADMK minister Nainar Nagendran in Ramanathapuram and himself (H. Raja) in Sivaganga.
Party sources indicated that the names announced by Mr. Raja largely matched with the official list.
Ms. Soundararajan, a member of the Nadar community, would take on the DMK star candidate M.K. Kanimozhi, whose mother belongs to the same community. She would have to overcome the negative impact of the gunning down of 13 anti-Sterlite protestors by the police.
Mr. Radhakrishnan, also a Nadar, is a two-time MP from Kanniyakumari and had won as the third front candidate in 2014, pushing the DMK to the fourth spot. Now he will have to bank on his charisma and the AIADMK’s support to take on the Congress candidate, most likely a member of the Christian Nadar community, backed by the DMK and Left parties.
Mr. Raja, known for strirring political controversies, was expected to take on Congress’ Karti P Chidambaram in Sivaganga, a seat held mutiple times by his father and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram.
Congress confident
“It will be a no-contest for the Congress if Raja is contesting,” is how TNCC president K.S. Alagiri reacted.
Former BJP state president C.P. Radhakrishnan would face off with the CPI (M)’s P.R. Natarajan in Coimbatore, a constituency which elected the former in 1998 and 1999 and the latter in 2009. Mr. Nagendran had quit the AIADMK and joined the BJP in 2017. He was immediately rewarded by the BJP and was appointed as state vice-president. The two-time former MLA, who is seen as a heavyweight in Tirunelveli, will fight in Ramanathapuram.
