‘Sentimental’ Stalin to start campaign from Tiruvarur

Stalin will begin his whirlwind tour covering over 20 districts in two weeks from the delta district. As part of the first phase of the tour, which would wind up at Arani on April 6, Stalin would largely be covering not less than two districts per day, party sources said.

Stalin will camp in Dharmapuri for two days to canvass support for the party’s candidate, Senthil Kumar, who is standing against sitting MP Anbumani Ramadoss (PMK).

As per the itinerary published by DMK party organ Murasoli on Monday, Stalin would restrict his campaign in Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s Salem constituency to just one day.

Prominent candidates like A Raja (Nilgiris), Tamilachi Thangapandian (South Chennai), Kalanithi Veerasamy (North Chennai), Kathir Anand (Vellore), S S Palanimanickam (Thanjavur) would get their leader to canvass for them in the first phase.

The DMK chief would also campaign for ally Congress in Karur, Theni, Krishnagiri and Tiruvallur, Left parties in Tiruppur, Coimbatore and Nagapattinam, MDMK (Erode) and IJK (Perambalur) in the coming fortnight.

However, his tour of Thoothukudi, where there could be a showdown between DMK’s Kanimozhi and a star candidate of the BJP, most likely to be Tamilisai Soundararajan, seems to be reserved for the week before the polls.

Though it would largely focus on Parliamentary seats, organisers have included several bypoll-bound Assembly segments in Stalin’s campaign tour.

The DMK chief has planned a repeat of his now-famous Namakku Naamey tour, which was instrumental in jacking up the DMK’s popularity ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls.