Congress announces candidates for 60 out of 63 TN seats

Candidates for 3 other constituencies will be announced later.

Actor S V Sekar,who was elected from Mylapore,an AIADMK seat,and joined the Congress recently,has not got a ticket.

Jothi Mani,Youth Congress General Secretary and Rahul Gandhi’s close aide,and Tamil Nadu Youth Congress chief M Yuvraj are some of the young faces in the list,which has dropped only a couple of sitting MLAs. Mahendran,a Youth Congress National Secretary,will seek the mandate from Peravurani.

While Mani will contest from Karur,Yuvaraj will enter the fray from Erode West constituency,which the party got after much persuasion from DMK whose strongman N K K P Raja,a former minister,shifted to a nearby seat.

Sources said these constituencies were specifically sought from the DMK so that Youth Congress leaders can be accommodated. Rahul Gandhi was very particular that there should be a considerable representation from the Youth wing in the list,sources said.

This is for the first time in several decades that the Congress will contest 63 seats in Tamil Nadu and this is probably the first time that so many Youth Congress members have got a chance to fight the elections.

A majority of the sitting MLAs have been retained and most of the top leaders like Union Ministers P Chidambaram,G K Vasan and Thangkabalu have managed to get seats for their loyalists.

Thirunavukarasu,who was Union Minister of State for IT and Telecommunications during NDA rule and joined the Congress two years ago,will seek the mandate from his stronghold of Aranthangi in south Tamil Nadu Pudukottai district from where he had entered the Assembly nearly 10 times earlier.

Neethe Rajan,considered a Chidambaram loyalist,will fight elections against the DMDK chief,actor Vijayakant in Virudachalam constituency.

Jayanthi,a political novice,will contest from Brahmin-dominated Mylapore in Chennai,while Jayakumar has been shifted to Madhuranthagam on the outskirts of Chennai.

Alphonse will seek re-election from Kadayanallur,C Gnanasekaran from Vellore,Kovai Thangam from Valpaarai and K R Ramasamy will contest from Karaikudi.

Another Dalit leader D Yasodha will seek re-election from the now re-drawn Sriperambudur constituency.

Other prominent candidates are M K Vishnuprasad from Cheyyar near Chennai,former Youth Congress chief Mayura S Jayakumar (Singanallur) and Royapuram Mano (Royapuram) in Chennai.

Former MP E Anbarasu’s son Arul will seek re-election from Sholingur in Vellor district.

Selva Peruthangai,who quit the VCK to join the Congress a couple of years ago,will contest from Chengam while A Chellakumar,a two-time MLA from Thyagaraya Nagar in Chennai,will seek re-election after a gap of 10 years from the same seat.

At least six women have been given tickets including Gayathri Devi,D Yashodha,Haseena Syed,Jothi Mani and S Vijayadharani apart from Jayanthi. Giving a seat to Thangkabalu’s wife has led to resentment among partymen in the state.

The Congress has remained out of power in the state for the past four decades and has been generally contesting the polls as an ally of Dravidian parties DMK or AIADMK.

Some two decades ago,the Congress’ attempt to go solo to usher during the Kamraj rule had turned a flop.