CHENNAI: AIADMK will contest 227 out of 234 seats in the May 16 assembly election in Tamil Nadu leaving just seven seats to the alliance partners. Chief minister J Jayalalithaa will contest in R K Nagar constituency which she won with a huge margin of 150,000 votes in the by-poll held in June last.
The list has largely taken in new faces, mostly the party functionaries across the state. Not all the state ministers have made it to the list. Finance minister O Panneerselvam will contest from his own Bodi seat while electricity minister Natham R Viswanathan will move to Athur. Other ministers whose name appear on the list are: R Vaithilingam (Orathanadu), Edappadi K Palaniswamy (Edappadi), B Valarmathi (Thousand Lights), S Gokula Indira (Anna Nagar) K C Veeramani (Jolarpet), P Thangamani (Kumarapalayam), Thoppu N D Venkatachalam (Perunthurai), S P Velumani (Thondamuthur), M C Sampath (Cuddalore),R Kamaraj (Nannilam), C Vijayabhaskar (Viralimalai), Sellur K Raju (Madurai West) and R B Udayakumar (Tirumangalam).
Former ministers including Panruti S Ramachandran (Alandur), K A Sengottaiyan (Gopichettipalayam), C Ve Shanmugam (Villupuram), V Senthil Balaji (Aravakkurichi) and N Thalavai Sundaram (Kanyakumari) have been given seats.
The notable inclusions are assembly deputy speaker Pollachi V Rajaraman (Pollachi), former Speaker D Jayakumar (Royapuram), and P Vetrivel, who quit his MLA's post to facilitate Jayalalithaa's return to the assembly after the Karnataka high court acquitted her in the disproportionate assets case. Vetrivel gets Perambur seat.
Seven alliance partners have been accommodated, while the notable miss is Velmurugan's Tamilaga Vazhvurumai Katchi. RPI's S K Tamilarasan moves to Madurantakam from Kilvaithinankuppam, while AISMK leader R Sarathkumar will contest from Tiruchendur. TN Kongu Ilaignar Peravai leader U Thaniyarasu moves to Kangeyam from his Paramathi Velur seat.
M Thamemmun Ansari's MJK, a breakaway faction of MMK, gets two seats - Nagapattinam and Ottanchathiram. The party, floated a month ago, extended support to the ruling AIADMK last week. Another Muslim outfit, and a long-time ally, S Sheik Dawood's TMML gets Kadayanallur seat.
Actor S Karunas, founder leader of Mukkulathur Pulipadai, gets Thiruvadanai seat in Ramanathapuram.
Enticing voters
One thing commonly practised and accepted in Tamil Nadu, prior to the elections is the handing out of hard cash to the people by political parties. A top government official who is quite familiar with the whole charade said around 60 per cent of the electorate will get cash of Rs 2,000 to 3,000 each, from various parties. For a 58 million voting population, this means some £60,000 to 90,000 distributed as cash, or gifts before polling day. These are operations monitored and directed from the very top of parties. But the government official says the money may have already reached the distribution points at the ward, panchayat level- before the model code came into effect. So far, £1.5 million have been caught in vehicle checks and cash seizures.
