Out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, the Congress will contest nine seats…reports Asian Lite News
The Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu are lobbying hard for their candidature for the nine Lok Sabha seats that have been allocated to it in the INDIA bloc.
The DMK and Congress finalised their seat-sharing arrangement on Monday. Out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Congress will contest nine seats. However, the Arani, Theni and Tiruchi seats were taken by the DMK and instead the party allocated Myladuthurai, Tirunelveli and Cuddalore seats to the Congress.
The Congress party will be replacing the Kanyakumari sitting MP, Vijay Vasanth with a Christian face and former Tamil Nadu Minority commission chairman, Peter Alphonse is the likely replacement. Vasanth’s name is being seriously considered for the Tirunelveli seat.
Congress sources told IANS that sitting MP’s JyothiMani from Karur, Manickam Tagore from Virudhunagar and Karthi Chidambaram from Sivaganga will contest from their own seats.
The sitting Congress MP from Krishnagiri Dr.Chellakumar is facing stiff opposition from the local DMK leaders. According to senior Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu, Chellakumar is being opposed by local Congress leadership also. However, party general secretary (organisation ) K.C. Venugopal will support his candidature, the sources added.
Veteran Congress leader and former state president of the party, Thirunavakkarsu is likely to contest from Mayiladuthurai seat and strong lobbying is going on for him with the state president K. Selvaperunthagai supporting his candidature.
The immediate past president of the state Congress, K.S. Alagiri is lobbying for his candidature from Cuddalore seat where he was an MLA earlier.
With hectic lobbying taking place for the nine seats in Tamil Nadu, it is a tough situation for the Congress state and central leadership to finalise the candidates.
Tamil Nadu will be going to polls on April 19 in the first phase and the nominations can be submitted from March 20. The last date of submission of nominations is March 27 and the last date for withdrawal is on March 30. The parties will get only 17 days for campaigning.
Stalin to begin INDIA bloc campaign from Tiruchi
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, who is also the president of the DMK, will commence the election campaign of the INDIA bloc from Friday.
DMK leader and state Minister K.N. Nehru is in charge of Friday’s inaugural programme which will begin from Siruganur in Tiruchi.
Minister Nehru while speaking to IANS said that the programme will be addressed by Chief Minister Stalin, MDMK leader Vaiko and a galaxy of senior leaders of the INDIA bloc. Vaiko’s son and senior MDMK leader Durai Vaiko is the INDIA bloc candidate from Tiruchi.
The minister, who was often referred to as a man of big programmes by late DMK leader and former Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi and now Stalin is overseeing the entire preparations for the programme.
Tiruchi is considered as a lucky point to start an election campaign and the DMK, which is a political formulation based on Periyar‘s ideology of atheism, ironically commences its election voyage from Tiruchi. Karunanidhi himself referred to Tiruchi as ‘Thiruppumunai Tiruchi’ (turning point Tiruchi) and Stalin also refers to Tiruchi with nostalgia.
Minister Nehru said that the Chief Minister will visit all the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across the state and would introduce the INDIA bloc candidates.
The DMK is contesting 21 seats, Congress nine, CPI(M) two, CPI two, VCK two, MDMK one, IUML one and KMDK one.
In the 2019 general elections, the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) led by the DMK won in 38 of the 39 seats it contested and CM Stalin is now aiming at a clean sweep in the 2024 polls. The Chief Minister had in his address to the party cadres and local leaders asserted to work hard at the grassroots to ensure a total victory to all the INDIA bloc candidates.
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