TIRUCHY: In a major shake-up that caught party ranks off guard, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami released a Tiruchy district candidate list dominated by fresh faces, fielding six newcomers out of eight constituencies while sidelining former ministers and district secretaries who were lobbying hard for tickets.
The unexpected exclusions triggered discontent within the district unit, as senior leaders, including former ministers M Paranjothi, NR Sivapathi and S Valarmathi, along with urban district secretary J Srinivasan, were denied nominations despite actively seeking seats in Srirangam, Musiri and Tiruchy East.
Defying expectations, the party leadership picked former Chief Whip and organising secretary R Manoharan for Srirangam and former Tiruchy MP and district secretary P Kumar for Tiruverumbur — the only two familiar faces in the list.
The remaining six constituencies were allotted to newcomers, signalling a deliberate generational shift. In Tiruchy East, the party fielded G Rajasekaran, secretary of Indra Ganesan College of Engineering and nephew of educationist N Selvaraj, a move that surprised cadres. Rajasekaran, however, asserted his long-standing association with the party spanning two decades.
In Manachanallur, RV Bharathan, son of Mutharaiyar Sangam founder R Viswanathan and founder of Singa Tamilar Munnetra Kazhagam, was nominated to contest on the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol.
Leema Rose Martin, wife of lottery baron Martin and correspondent of Martin Homoeopathy Medical College, was fielded in a constituency with a significant Christian-Udayar voter base. Party insiders said her candidature, though that of an outsider, was expected to gain traction, with visible resource mobilisation already underway.
The AIADMK also introduced PL Vijayakumar, a political debutant and son of former union secretary Palanimalai alias Vettai, as a candidate, marking another fresh induction.
Further surprises came in Musiri and Thuraiyur (SC), where N Yoganathan and Saroja Elangovan were named candidates, leaving party workers taken aback.
The sweeping preference for new faces over seasoned leaders underscores EPS’s attempt to recalibrate the party’s electoral strategy in Tiruchy, even at the cost of unsettling established power centres.