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Lok Sabha 2019: TN BJP chief Tamilisai to take on Kanimozhi in Thoothukudi
Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, state party chief Tamilisai Soundararajan and national secretary H Raja, known for his rabble rousing speeches, are among the five candidates announced by the BJP Thursday for Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu.
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Chennai
BJP has been allotted five out of the 39 seats as part of the NDA led by the ruling AIADMK in the state.
The names of the five candidates for Tamil Nadu were part of the first list of nominees announced by senior BJP leader JP Nadda in Delhi Thursday evening.
While Radhakrishnan will seek re-election from Kanyakumari, Soundararajan has been fielded from Tuticorin constituency and Raja from Sivaganga, all in southern Tamil Nadu.
Radhakrishnan had emerged the sole winner for BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the state which contested in allaince with smaller political parties.
A straight contest is expected between the state BJP president and DMK's Rajya Sabha MP and party chief MK Stalin's sister Kanimozhi.
State president of the BJP since 2014, Soundararajan, a gynaecologist, has her roots in southern Tamil Nadu and belongs to the Nadar community who have a significant presence in southern Tuticorin and neighbouring districts.
"I will soon release a vision document for Tuticorin. I am keen to serve the people of Tuticorin which has been a neglected region," Soundararajan told PTI.
She said she will start her campaign from Tuticorin on March 26. BJP workers hailed her nomination saying she is "transparent, accessible and non-corrupt."
Radhakrishnan, a senior leader of the party, had a also won from the same seat in 1999.
A former state president of the BJP and a key leader of the Saffron party from the western belt, C P Radhakrishnan is the party candidate from Coimbatore from where he had won the Lok Sabha polls in 1998 and 1999.
Raja, known for his rabble rousing speeches and remarks that had kicked up controversies in the past, is a former MLA and will be fighting from his native district of Sivaganga.
Nainar Nagendran, a former Minister and AIADMK leader who had joined the BJP in 2017, is the party candidate from Ramanathapuram.
To a question on Raja announcing the names of candidates ahead of the official release by the party headquarters, Soundararajan said "as state party president I feel that it should have been avoided."
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