85% candidates final, 15% pending: Congress to approve Tamil Nadu list in CEC meeting today. india news
New Delhi: The Indian National Congress The Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in Delhi is set to finalize its candidates for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, with 85 per cent of the names already finalised, according to state unit chief K Selvaperunthagai.Selvaperunthagai said discussions with senior leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have been largely completed, with only a small portion of seats remaining to be finalised.“All India Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and senior leaders discussed the candidates. 85% have been decided, 15% are pending. Today we are going to decide,” he said.The Congress will contest elections in 28 constituencies as part of the alliance led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which heads the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA). DMK has retained its majority by deciding to contest 164 seats out of 234, while allotting the remaining 70 seats to its allies. Apart from the Congress, the major allies include the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) with five seats each, the Viduthalai Chiruthigal Katchi (VCK) with eight seats and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) with four seats.Other alliance partners include smaller regional players Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) with 10 seats and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) with two seats.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President mk stalin Candidates for several key constituencies have already been announced.Stalin will contest from Kolathur, while Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has been fielded from Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni.Other prominent candidates include Mahesh from Kanyakumari, Appavu from Radhapuram, Wahab from Palayamkottai, Kalaikthiravan from Tenkasi and KKSSR Ramachandran from Aruppukottai. Additional names include Velu from Mylapore and Ma Subramaniam from Saidapet.The main contest in the state is expected to be between the DMK-led SPA and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led NDA, which includes the BJP and the PMK.A recent survey by polling agency Lok Poll has predicted a strong performance for the DMK alliance, projecting it to get 181 to 189 seats with a vote share of 40.1 per cent. The AIADMK-led alliance was projected to get 38 to 42 seats.Tamil Nadu will go to polls in a single phase on April 23 and counting of votes will take place on May 4.The last date for filing nominations is April 6, scrutiny will take place on April 7 and candidates can withdraw nominations till April 9.With the list of candidates complete and alliances finalised, political parties are entering the final phase of preparations for what is expected to be a closely watched electoral contest in the state.


