Chennai: The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) headed by TTV Dhinakaran today announced its second and final list of 14 candidates for the 18 April Lok Sabha elections in Tamilnadu.
While Dhinakaran was expected to contest against Deputy Chief Minister and AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam’s son O P Ravindranath in Theni, he has instead fielded his close aide Thanga Tamilselvan in the constituency.
The list included three disqualified AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Dhinakaran, who floated the AMMK after being sidelined in the ruling party.
The AMMK is contesting 38 of the 39 seats in the State and Dhinakaran had earlier announced candidates for 24 seats.
It has alloted Chennai Central constituency to its ally Social Democratic Party of India. Today, Dhinakaran released the list of the 14 candidates. N G Parthiban and P Palaniappan are the other disqualified MLAs who have been nominated by Dhinakaran. They will contest from Arakkonam and Dharmapuri seats, respectively.
Eighteen AIADMK MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran were disqualified in 2017 by Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal for revolting against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Dhinakaran also announced the second list of candidates for the 18 April byelections scheduled for 18 Assembly seats in the State, mainly caused by the disqualification of the AIADMK MLAs.