M K Stalin fields old horses and young guns, calls them sure-shot winners

CHENNAI: DMK president M K Stalin seems to have played it safe by betting big on party veterans, even while taking along young and emerging leaders, when he announced on Friday the list of candidates for 173 assembly seats that the party is contesting in the assembly elections.
Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi makes his debut in electoral politics and will contest from Chepauk-Triplicane assembly segment, a seat represented by his grandfather and former chief minister M Karunanidhi.Udhayanidhi’s candidature, despite plans not to initiate him in this election, is sure to be used by the political opponents to attack the DMK for promoting dynastic politics. Though Udhayanidhi is not the only son to make his political debut, he is the most prominent.

"They are not mere candidates. They are our winners," Stalin said, after reading out the list of candidates. "Though several parties are in the alliance and a few of them were seeking the same constituencies, we managed to handle everything smoothly by even burning the midnight oil," said Stalin, who is contesting from Kolathur, from where he won in 2011 and 2016.
The DMK has retained most of whom the party workers were expecting to make the cut. DMK general secretary S Durai Murugan leads the pack of old horses and others include K N Nehru, K Ponmudi, I Periasamy, M R K Panneerselvam, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan and Poongothai Aladi Aruna.
Equally strong is the list of young leaders including P T R Thiagarajan, Anbil Mahesh, T R B Rajah and second line leaders including E V Velu, Anitha Radhakrishnan and M Subramanian. "The sole criteria for selection of candidates was seniority and close rapport the candidates had with the people in their constituencies," senior DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP T K S Elangovan told TOI.
Prominent among the new comers, numbering around 25, include A Vetri Azhagan, grandson of former DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan, and Ezhilan Naganathan, son of M Naganathan, former state planning commission chairman. If long-time party loyalists like S S Sivasankar have been retained, opportunity has been given to new comers into the party like Karthikeya Sivasenapathy, who hit headlines during the ‘Marina Puratchi’ and has since become the DMK’s environment wing secretary. Even leaders, who joined from AMMK and the AIADMK – Thanga Tamilselvan and R Lakshmanan – found a place on the list.
While the DMK is fielding 173
candidates, another 15 candidates belonging to its allies like the MDMK and MMK are contesting in the DMK’s rising sun symbol.