No-surprise list: BJP pits Tamilisai against K Kanimozhi

CHENNAI: The BJP's Tamil Nadu candidates list announced on Thursday was on expected lines, with Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan being fielded from Kanyakumari, state chief Tamilisai Soundararajan in Tuticorin, national secretary H Raja in Sivaganga, C P Radhakrishnan in Coimbatore and vice-president Nainar Nagendran in Ramanathapuram.
While Pon Radhakrishnan and Raja will fight Congress, which is yet to name candidates for its nine seats in DMK alliance, Tamilisai will cross swords with DMK heavyweight Kanimozhi in Tuticorin.
H Raja to contest from Sivaganga for third time
H Raja is contesting from Sivaganga for the third time. In 2014, he came third with 1.33 lakh votes, while in 1999, he came second.
It will be a keenly fought battle between Tamilisai and DMK’s state women wing secretary and Rajya Sabha MP K Kanimozhi in Tuticorin.
Though Tamilisai initially preferred to contest from Chennai South, which has a sizeable votebank for the party, she finally settled for Tuticorin. AIADMK was keen on retaining south Chennai for sitting MP, J Jayavardhan, son of fisheries minister D Jayakumar.
Former TN BJP chief Radhakrishnan will face CPM’s P R Natarajan in Coimbatore. This is the fifth time that Radhakrishnan has been fielded in Coimbatore, a BJP stronghold. While he won two consecutive Lok Sabha elections in 1998 and 1999, he was defeated in the 2004 and 2014 polls.
Nainar Nagendran has been pitted against DMK’s IUML candidate K Nawaz Kani. While the party made a quick decision on candidates for four constituencies, Ramanathapuram delayed matters considering the keen contest for the seat among some senior leaders.