On AIADMK stalwart J Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam submitted their poll applications to their party for contesting in the upcoming elections from Edappadi and Bodinayakanur constituencies respectively. The AIADMK has started election formalities and began accepting the applications of party members aspiring for a ticket from February 24.
On Wednesday, AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam submitted the first poll application from the party for contesting from his home turf Bodinayakanur. AIADMK co-coordinator and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami also submitted the application for contesting from his home turf Edappadi on Wednesday.
Several party leaders followed. Minister Dindigul Sreenivasan submitted his application for Dindigul constituency, Minister Sengottaiyan for Gobichettipalayam, Minister SP Velumani for Thondamuthur and Minister Thangamani for Kumarapalayam Assembly constituencies.
Other AIADMK Ministers like KP Munnuswamy submitted his applications for Krishnagiri while Vaithiyalingam applied for the Orathanadu ticket. The poll applications will be distributed till March 5. In Tamil Nadu, the costs for the poll applications are fixed at Rs 15,000 while in Puducherry, the poll applications costs Rs 5,000 and they cost Rs 2,000 for Kerala polls.
In a release from the party, the AIADMK cadre was instructed to collect forms between 10 am and 5 pm from party headquarters. The AIADMK will be accepting nominations across Tamil Nadu for all 234 Assembly constituencies.
However, AIADMK has not completed seat-sharing talks yet with BJP, PMK, DMDK and other alliance parties. The DMK and actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) have also started collecting poll application forms. The DMK started collecting applications from February 17 and the exercise will end on Wednesday. The MNM started distributing the applications from February 21 online and offline.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, VK Sasikala, former General Secretary and aide of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, addressed party cadre and urged them to unite to defeat the DMK. Sasikala said, “Jayalalithaa’s supporters should come together and ensure that we win the polls and form the government. Soon I'll also meet the public and cadres.”