Karti Chidambaram files nomination from Sivaganga

SIVAGANGA: Karti Chidambaram, son of veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram, filed his nomination from the Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat here on Monday. Karti had won from the Sivaganga constituency in 2019 and has been entrusted with the responsibility again for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha polls on April 19.

"I'm thankful for the Congress party, for reposing faith in me again and allowing me to contest for the third time. I am very grateful to my party leadership... The entire alliance has come together. The three ministers from the DMK, DMK MLA, and Congress MLA were with me," Karti told ANI after filing nomination,said "The INDIA alliance will overwhelmingly win the Sivaganga seat as it will win every seat in Tamil Nadu. We have workers' meeting from tomorrow onwards for the next six days and from the 1st March we will start a proper campaign where we'll reach out to the public," he added.

Congress released a list of candidates for seven seats out of nine in Tamil Nadu on Saturday. Last week, a press release issued by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) announced the party's plan to contest in nine constituencies spanning Tamil Nadu, including Thiruvallur (the reserved constituency), Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai, Sivaganga, Tirunelveli, Krishnagiri, Karur, Virudhunagar, and Kanniyakumari.

Earlier, a three-time Congress MLA from Tamil Nadu, S Vijayadharani, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party's headquarters in the national capital, giving a major blow to Congress. Meanwhile, former Telangana and Puducherry Governor and BJP candidate from South Chennai Tamilisai Soundararajan filed her candidature for the Lok Sabha elections and said that she resigned from the governor's post because she wanted to "work directly for the people of the state."

"The people want PM Modi to be Prime Minister again. South Chennai is a constituency with very responsible people and they're longing for a good parliamentarian. The present MP is not very approachable. I will be very approachable. When I was in a constitutional post, I also used to interact with people. I resigned from the governor's post because I want to work directly for the people," Soundararajan told ANI on Monday.

DMK candidate Tamilachi Thangapandiyan and AIADMK candidate J Jayavardhan also filed nominations for South Chennai. Voting for all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will be held in the first phase of the general elections on April 19.

In the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats in the state.

In 2019, DMK won 23 Lok Sabha seats with a 33.2 per cent vote share, Congress bagged 8 seats with a 12.9 per cent vote and CPI won two seats in Tamil Nadu. The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country will be held in seven phases starting April 19. The counting of the votes will take place on June 4.