Chennai: In no mood to let in even allies into its fortress, the ruling DMK has ceded just one seat – Velachery – out of the 16 core city seats to an alliance partner. Of the 15 seats, 12 will see DMK and the AIADMK locking horns directly.In a rejig to infuse fresh blood, however, the party has replaced at least six sitting MLAs with younger or more vocal candidates, including a first-time GCC councillor A P Poornima in Ambattur.Surprise exclusions are T Nagar’s J Karunanidhi and Egmore’s I Paranthamen. And a notable inclusion is DMK’s Chennai West district secretary N Chitrarasu, who has now replaced sitting MLA Mohan in Anna Nagar. Mohan’s son Karthik Mohan has been fielded in Villivakkam to take on TVK’s Adhav Arjuna. Villivakkam MLA Vetri Azhagan, grandson of the late DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan, did not seek renomination.Making clear its intent to make rivals sweat, the party fielded its own candidate in Perambur, where TVK chief Vijay is expected to make his electoral debut. DMK’s R D Sekar has been renominated in the seat.Chief minister M K Stalin who will contest from Kolathur for the fourth time and deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin from Chepauk-Triplicane for the second time, and it is up to AIADMK now to choose its thoroughbreds in the election race.As expected, DMK Chennai south secretary Ma Subramanian is to contest from his home ground Saidapet and Chennai North (West) Secretary P K Sekarbabu retains Harbour. Other seats retained by incumbent MLAs include Prabakar Raja from Virugambakkam, Dr Ezhilan from Thousand Lights, J J Ebenezer from R K Nagar, S Aravind Ramesh from Sholinganallur, Dha Velu from Mylapore.Two lawyers – Tamilan Prasanna (Egmore) and K S Ravichandran (Thiru Vi Ka Nagar) – have found a place in the core city constituencies.T Nagar MLA J Karunanithi, Royapuram’s ‘I Dream’ R Murthy and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar’s Thayagam Kavi alias P Sivakumar have been dropped and replaced with DMK youth wing organiser Raja Anbazhagan, minority welfare wing state secretary Dr Subair Khan, and former Egmore MLA K S Ravichandran, respectively.In the immediate suburbs too, DMK has retained most of its candidates, including minorities minister S M Nasar for Avadi, MSME minister T M Anbarasan for Alandur, A Krishnasamy for Poonamallee, Ganapathy for Maduravoyal and S Sudharsanam for Madhavaram. Ambattur, where first-time councillor Poornima has been given the party ticket, is the only exception. Also, she is the only woman in the list of DMK candidates in Chennai and surrounding areas.
