Sons and daughters, wives and sisters: The family ‘drama’ that is LS polls in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu politics has been long known for its ‘dynastic’ nature, with senior politicians grooming their children, mostly sons, to take over the mantle. It is not different this time either, with quite a few kin taking the Lok Sabhabattle field, armed with their family members’ legacy and clout. However, it should be noted that some of them have grown to become leaders in their own right over the years.

Among these, a couple of them stand out. At Chennai South Lok Sabha constituency, all three leading candidates are related to senior leaders – Tamizhachi Thangapandian (DMK), J Jayavardhan (AIADMK) and Tamilisai Soundararajan (BJP). Another candidate who stands out is Vidhya Rani, who is not a politician’s daughter but the child of the dreaded forest brigand Veerappan.

Here is the list of such candidates:

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)

Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (Thoothukudi) is the daughter of late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and the step-sister of present party president and Chief Minister MK Stalin

Dayanidhi Maran (Chennai Central) is the son of former Union Minister Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of Karunanidhi

Kalanidhi Veeraswamy, who is contesting from Chennai North, is the son of veteran leader Arcot N Veeraswami

Thamizhachi Thangapandian (Chennai South) is the sister of Minister Thangam Thennarasu

Kathir Anand (Vellore) is the son of DMK general secretary and senior Minister Duraimurugan

Arun Nehru (Perambalur) is the son of another party senior and Minister KN Nehru

(It may be noted that there would have been one more person on the list, Gowtham Sigamani, the son of senior DMK leader and Minister K Ponmudy. However, the sitting MP was not fielded by the party, reportedly because he is under the ED lens.)

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)

J Jayavardhan (Chennai South) is the son of senior leader D Jayakumar

D Lokesh Tamilselvan (Nilgiris) is the son of former Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal

Singai G Ramachandran (Coimbatore) is the son of former MLA Singai Govindarasu

Congress

Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga) is the son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram

MK Vishnu Prasad (Cuddalore) is the son of former TNCC president M Krishnasamy

Vijay Vasanth (Kanyakumari) is the son of late leader and business magnate H Vasanthakumar

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Tamilisai Soundararajan (Chennai South) is the daughter of veteran Congress leader Kumari Anandan

Raadhika Sarathkumar (Virudhunagar), a leading yesteryear actor in Tamil cinema, is the wife of All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi chief and actor Sarathkumar. The party was merged with the BJP last week

Desiya Murpoku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK)

Vijaya Prabhakar (Virudhunagar) is the son of late actor-politician and party founder Vijayakanth. His mother, Premalatha, is now leading the party

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK)

Durai Vaiko (Tiruchy) is the son of MDMK founder Vaiko – who incidentally quit the DMK and formed the party after Karunanidhi chose Stalin as his successor

Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK)

Sowmiya Anbumani (Dharmapuri) is the wife of PMK president and RS member Anbumani Ramadoss, who earlier held the seat. Anbumani is the son of party founder S Ramadoss

Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK)

Vidhya Rani (Krishnagiri) is the daughter of slain forest brigand Veerappan

The 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu will go for voting for the Lok Sabha polls on April 19. Along with it, the bypoll to Vilavancode Assembly constituency will also be held.

In the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, which comprised Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPM, IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory by winning 38 of the 39 seats.

Among them, DMK won 23 Lok Sabha seats with 33.2 per cent vote share, while Congress bagged 8 seats with 12.9 per cent vote.