BJP releases first list of 9 candidates for Tamil Nadu; Tamilsai Soundrarajan to contest from South Chennai

Ex-MP Pon Radhakrishnan has been fielded from Kanyakumari and union minister of state for information and broadcasting L Murugan from Nilgiris SC segment

The BJP does not have any MP in Tamil Nadu currently.

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 21

The BJP on Thursday released its first list of nine candidates for Tamil Nadu fielding former Telangana governor Tamilsai Soundrarajan from South Chennai and state unit chief K Annamalai from Coimbatore.

Ex-MP Pon Radhakrishnan has been fielded from Kanyakumari and union minister of state for information and broadcasting L Murugan from Nilgiris SC segment.

The first list was released after the BJP's core committee meeting on Thursday.

The BJP does not have any MP in Tamil Nadu currently.

All 39 Lok Sabha seats of the state will go to polls in the first phase on April 19.

The BJP has long found the Tamil Nadu electoral ground tough with the party winning three Lok Sabha seats in 1998, four in 1999 and one in 2014.

The performance in late 1990s was spurred by veteran LK Advani's Ram Mandir Rath Yatra that passed through the state in 1998.

When in Coimbatore, it was challenged by a series of bomb blasts across 11 locations leading to several casualties and also giving the BJP a Hindutva foothold in Coimbatore where the party won in 1998 and 1999.

The ruling DMK has this year fielded a candidate in Coimbatore where Prime Minister Narendra Modi just held a rally.

This is after a decade that the DMK had retained Coimbatore for itself.

Otherwise it was given to the Left allies.

The PM has actively campaigned in Tamil Nadu where the party is targeting double digit vote percentage.

The PM has appealed to Tamilians through historical ties Tamil shares with Varanasi, Modi's current Lok Sabha seat.

The PM also led the process of installation of Sengol, the Chola dynasty symbol of transfer of power, in the Lok Sabha chambers in new Parliament building.

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