Chennai North & South to witness three-way fight as BJP tries to dislodge Dravidian parties

Tamil Nadu Lok Sabha Elections 2024: A three-pronged contest is set to take place in two of Chennai's three Lok Sabha constituencies, Chennai North and Chennai South, with the incumbent DMK locking horns with the AIADMK and the BJP.

The BJP has fielded Tamilisai Soundararajan, former governor of Telangana to contest the coveted Chennai South constituency, which is the state's fourth largest constituency with more than two million voters. Soundararajan faces T Sumathy of the DMK and J Jayavardhan of the AIADMK. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Sumathy won a thumping majority with a 50.28% vote share. The constituency has remained a stronghold of the DMK, with the party winning it five times while the AIADMK has won it twice.

In North Chennai, Kalanidhi Veeraswamy of the DMK, R Manohar of the AIADMK, RC Paul Kanagaraj of the BJP and E Iqbal of the BSP are in the fray.


Veeraswamy, a plastic surgeon, is seeking re-election on the "strength" of his five-year track record. In 2019, he won with a massive 61.85% vote share. He said the BJP was "non-existent" in North Chennai as the DMK and AIADMK had a strong organisation structure and the BJP did not even have enough booth agents to cover the 1,500 booths. The BJP and the AIADMK are banking on local issues to sway voters. Both the parties are raking up the DMK's perceived mishandling of floods, allegations of dynastic politics, charges of corruption and inconvenience caused due to delays in metro rail and MRTS work to tip the scales in their favour.