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New faces to test waters in oldest seat, North Chennai
It is interesting to note that all the candidates of prominent parties in North Chennai Lok Sabha constituency are new faces. The voters of one of the oldest constituency in the city will witness fresh faces campaigning in April 18 elections.
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The North Chennai Lok Sabha constituency, with the total voters of 14.6 lakh has six assembly constituencies such as Thiruvottiyur, RK Nagar, Perambur, Kolathur, Thiru Vi Nagar and Royapuram.
The six assembly constituencies are equally shared by AIADMK, DMK and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) as all the parties have two seats each. RK Nagar by-election, which saw the rise of AMMK leader, TTV Dhinakaran, is present in the North Chennai constituency and the party is expected to give a tough fight to the Dravidian majors.
The constituency was a traditional fort of the DMK and Congress. In the past, the DMK had won 10 times from the constituency. The fort was breached by the AIADMK in 2014 when the party candidate TG Venkatesh Babu defeated DMK candidate R Girirajan by a margin of close to one lakh.
However, for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections the AIADMK had allotted the seat to one of its allies, DMDK, which has fielded Alagapuram Mohanraj, DMDK Salem district secretary. Alagapuram Mohanraj is a new face to the constituency though he had contested from Salem Assembly constituency twice.
Similarly, the DMK has also fielded a new candidate for the constituency, Kalanidhi Veerasamy, son of former Electricity minister and senior DMK leader Arcot Veerasamy. Kalanidhi, from Anna Nagar, is a known party face, but as far as North Chennai voters are concerned, he is a new face.
The AMMK has fielded Santhanakrishnan, former AIADMK North Chennai district secretary. Santhanakrishnan was the district secretary during the times of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and had won her appreciation for his election works during the 2016 Assembly elections when Jayalalithaa contested in RK Nagar. Though Santhanakrishnan is a face known to a section of voters in the constituency, he too is contesting for the first time in the Lok Sabha constituency.
First-timers face-off
Kalanidhi Veerasamy (DMK)
Son of former Electricity Minister Arcot Veerasamy is contesting for the first time in an MP election. A specialist in plastic surgery, Kalanidhi has worked for 15 years in RK Nagar and has firsthand information on the issues affecting people of the constituency. Though one of the highly educated candidate Kalanidhi carries the tag of son of a veteran politician.
Alagapuram Mohanraj (DMDK)
Is from Salem constituency. He is the Salem district secretary of the DMDK but as he was one of the confidantes of the party leader Vijayakant and his family he was given the North Chennai seat. He won as MLA in 2011 Assembly elections from Salem but lost in the same constituency in 2016.
Santhanakrishnan (AMMK)
A politician from North Chennai is known for his hard work among the party cadres. He was formerly the district secretary of North Chennai and won the appreciation of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa when he worked for RK Nagar election in 2016. After the demise of Jayalalithaa, RK Nagar witnessed by-election and again he worked hard for Dhinakaran thereby securing his confidence.
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