LS polls: BJP releases third list, former Telangana guv among candidates

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released third list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, fielding former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan from Chennai South seat, and the party’s state unit chief and former IPS officer K Annamalai from Coimbatore.

Soundararajan had quit as the Telangana governor earlier this week. She had contested against DMK’s Kanimozhi in Thoothukudi in the 2019 LS polls, but lost. The latest list of BJP has nine contestants for seats in Tamil Nadu.

Pon Radhakrishnan, a former Union minister, was the BJP’s lone winning candidate from Tamil Nadu’s Kanniyakumari seat in 2014. He was the runner-up in 2009 and 2019 polls. He will contest from the seat again.

 

Union minister L Murugan, currently a Rajya Sabha member, will contest from Nilgiris reserved seat. In February, Murugan was the only Union minister, other than Ashiwini Vaishnaw, that the BJP re-nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

Seven Union ministers, including Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajeev Chandrashekar and Bhupender Yadav, were denied a re-nomination and are set to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP plans to contest 20 of Tamil Nadu’s 39 seats.

Its allies such as GK Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar), is likely to contest three seats, the Pattali Makkal Katchi will contest 10 seats and the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam two seats. Some of these allies could field their candidates on the BJP’s symbol.

The BJP is hopeful of bettering its poor electoral record in Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the back of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's several visits to these states, including holding of such events as Kashi-Tamil Sangamam. 

With its third list, the BJP has announced 274 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. Its first list comprised 195 candidates, two of whom later withdrew and the second list comprised 72 candidates.