Jayalalithaa announces AIADMK candidates for Lok Sabha elections
Jayalalithaa named candidates for 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry
Chennai: Putting the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) into poll mode on her birthday, Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa named the party’s candidates for 40 Lok Sabha seats—39 in Tamil Nadu and the Puducherry constituency—on Monday.
Jayalalithaa said she would start her campaign in Kanchipuram on 3 March and would be touring the state until 5 April. The AIADMK is in talks with the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India-Marxist on sharing seats. Once the seats they would contest are finalised, the AIADMK will withdraw its candidates for those constituencies.
Her 66th birthday was marked by the cutting of a 66kg cake at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai where party workers turned up to have a glimpse of their Puratchi Thalaivi (revolutionary leader).
Prayers and welfare activities also marked the birthday of Amma (mother), as she is addressed by partymen, while loudspeakers on street corners played popular film songs of Jayalalithaa opposite her mentor, the late M.G. Ramachandran. Both were actors who ventured into politics.
Jayalalithaa started her career as a Rajya Sabha member after being introduced to politics by Ramachandran. She later consolidated her position in the AIADMK and went on to capture power in Tamil Nadu for the first time in 1991.
PTI contributed to this copy.
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