Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2016

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) today announced candidates for the May 2016 assembly elections. The AIADMK supermo will contest from R K Nagar constituency, from where she was elected in the by-election. The party has also decided to contest seven seats in Kerala and in 30 in Puducherry elections.

Elections In Tamil Nadu:Of the total 27 ministers, including Jayalaithaa, only 17 are going to contest in May 2016 state assembly elections, while 10 were not given seats. The list has combination of new faces, including former DGP R Natraj (who will contest from Mylapore).

Key ministers, who have been close to Jayalalithaa and were sidelined recently, have also found a place in the AIADMK list. They include trusted aids O Panneerselvam (finance minister), Natham Viswanathan (minister for power), and Edapadi Palaniswamy who were also part of the list, which was released by Jayalaithaa today. V Senthil Balaji, who was sacked from the cabinet, was also given a seat for the upcoming election. He will contest from Aravakurichi constituency.

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Interestingly the list of the party, which was founded by actor-turned-politician M G Ramachandran and now controlled by actor-turned politician Jayalalithaa, doesn't have many names from the entertainment industry, except for three and one from ally.

Who is going to contest from where?

Jayalalithaa to contest from Radhakrishna Nagar (R K Nagar), which elected her during the by-election in June 2015. She defeated CPI candidate C Mahendran by a huge margin of 1.5 lakh votes. The Radhakrishnan Nagar seat fell vacant after AIADMK's Vetrivel resigned to facilitate Jayalalithaa's re-election to the assembly.

Jayalalithaa was elected from Srirangam in 2011, but lost that seat and the chief minister's post after a trial court in Bengaluru convicted her in the disproportionate assets case. The Karnataka High Court upheld her appeal and acquitted her of all charges. Jayalalithaa was again sworn in as chief minister, but she has to get elected to the assembly within six months.

AIADMK will contest 227 seats, of the total 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2016. Balance seven seats were allocated. While AIADMK decided to contest almost all the seats, its rival DMK has allocated 54 constituencies to its allies, including 41 to Congress.

The balance which is in DMK's hand is 180 seats and the party said it continues to have discussions with other regional parties. However, how many seats DMK is going to contest is yet to be decided.

AIADMK's list includes O Panneerselvam (Bodinayakkanur Assembly), Natham Vishwanathan (Aathur), Valarmathi (Thousand Lights), D Jayakumar (Royapuram), Ponnaiyan (Saidapet), Velumani (Thondamuthur) C V Shanmugam (from Villiupram), Edappadi K Palaniswami ((Edappadi), P Thangamani (Kumarapalayam) among others whose got seats.

AIADMK has also given seats to some of the members, who have quit other parties and joined AIADMK. Of the total of nine DMDK MLAs, who have joined the AIADMK, only Mafoi K Pandiarajan and Ramachandran alone could get seats. M Kalaiarasu and  P T Elangovan who have quit PMK and Parithi Ilamvazhuthi who quit DMK and joined AIADMK were also given seats.