SALEM: ‘Election King’ K Padmarajan of Mettur in Salem district, who has contested and lost 252 elections since 1988, says he will file his nominations as an independent candidate in the constituency where actor and TVK leader Vijay is contesting in the April 23 Tamil Nadu assembly election. Padmarajan, 67, who has contested and lost in several local body, cooperative society, assembly, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, President of India and Vice-President of India elections for almost four decades, says that he has never expected victory and that participating in polls itself is a success for him. According to him, this attitude has given him the name “Election King” and a place in the Limca Book of Records for the most unsuccessful candidate. Padmarajan says he has lost more than Rs 1 crore as election deposits. He says his best performance was in the 2011 Tamil Nadu assembly election when he secured 6,273 votes in Mettur constituency. “I could not believe that I secured so many votes,” he says. Padmarajan contested six times to the post of the President of India and seven times to the post of the Vice-President of India. Also, he contested against late leaders like M Karunanidhi, J Jayalalithaa, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and P V Narasimha Rao. He contested against Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This time, he will file his papers in Mettur as well as in the constituency where Vijay is going to contest, he says. Vijay is yet to announce his constituency. “I am waiting,” Padmarajan says.
