Puducherry Assembly Election 2021: Two former DMK ministers, six new faces in list released by party

Puducherry: Two former DMK ministers and six new faces, including two lawyers, have been named in the list of nominees for 12 of the 13 constituencies announced by the party on Saturday for the 6 April Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Puducherry. The party, while announcing the nominees earlier in the day, had said in a statement that the candidate for Bagur would will be named later. Prominent among the nominees are former education minister SP Sivakumar, who will contest from Raj Bhavan constituency, while former health minister AMH Nazeem will try his luck from Karaikal South. Also finding a place in the list are former MLA Annibal Kennedy and the legislator in the outgoing Assembly, R Siva. Siva will contest from Villianoor constituency and Kennedy from Uppalam. The party has not named any woman candidate. Two lawyers, L Sampath and S Muthuvel are among the new faces. While Sampath has been fielded from Mudaliarpet, Muthuvel will contest from Kalapet. The others are S Gopal from Oreleanpeth, V Karthikeyan (Nellithope), A Mugilan (Tirubhuvanai-reserved) and M Nagathiagarajan (Neravy TR Pattinam in Karaikal). Though DMK ally Congress has been earmarked 15 constituencies of the total 30 segments in Puducherry, six less than in the 2016 polls, the party has not yet finalised and announced the names of its candidates.