Tamil Nadu polls: Jayalalithaa replaces 12 AIADMK candidates

A day after changing her party candidate for Aruppukottai, AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday replaced 12 more nominees for the May 16 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Prominent among those who have got the ticket now are former minister S Semmalai, AIADMK Executive Committee member and Women’s Wing Deputy Secretary CR Saraswathi, Madurai Mayor VV Rajan Chellappa and sitting MLA A Murugesan.

Semmalai, the party’s Organisation Secretary, will now contest from Mettur, where A Chandrasekaran was named as the nominee in the list of AIADMK candidates for 227 seats announced on April 4.

Saraswathi, who is the face the party in TV of late, has been fielded in Pallavaram in the city suburb, replacing CV Elangovan, a party release said. 

Chellappa is the new AIADMK candidate for Madurai North constituency in place of MS Pandian. Jayalalithaa also named OS Manian, former Lok Sabha member, as the new candidate in Vedaranyam.

Manian has also been made the District Secretary of party’s Nagapattinam District unit in place of KA Jayapal, who was the in-charge of the unit.