Kamal Haasan to hit the campaign trail on Monday

The party had released its first list of candidates for 21 Lok Sabha seats on March 20, with the names for the remaining seats and 18 Assembly bypoll seats to be announced at the party’s Coimbatore rally on Sunday.

Party sources said that their candidates would file nomination papers on Monday and start campaigning on the same day.

When contacted, MNM’s Chennai Central candidate Kameela Nasser told DT Next, “I have not started my campaigning yet, but my supporters have already descended on the field. I will start going on rounds from Monday after filing the nomination.”

A senior MNM leader said that a lot of effort has been made to select candidates with good credentials. “The selection process led to some unexpected delay in finalising the candidates. Kamal is likely to launch his state-wide campaign on Monday,” he said.

The delay in starting its campaign might hurt the MNM’s prospects, opined a political commentator. “As a fledging party, the MNM should have started the field work much ahead of other parties. They will now be forced to compete with the established parties whose candidates are well-known to the voters than MNM’s,” he said.