Kanimozhi files application to contest in Lok Sabha polls

CHENNAI: Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP, daughter of late DMK leader M Karunanidhi and step-sister of current party President MK Stalin, has submitted an application with her party for her candidature in the forthcoming Parliamentary Elections, preferably from the southern district of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu.

Kanimozhi filed the application at the DMK headquarters in Chennai on Monday. She told mediapersons that her candidacy is a decision to be taken by the party. Kanimozhi is likely to face off with BJP State President Tamilisai Soundararajan, who will garner the votes of the BJP alliance partners AIADMK, PMK, and other smaller parties.

If the DMK chooses to let her contest, this would be Kanimozhi's first time she would face the public electorate. Kanimozhi was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the second time in June 2013 amid her name figuring as an accused in the 2G spectrum scam that had an impact on the United Progressive Alliance Government's second term in power.


The Women's Wing Secretary for DMK, Kanimozhi has been frequenting the Southern district over the last few months, grooming local functionaries, being vocal on the need to permanently shut down the Sterlite Copper factory, and meeting the voters before the beginning of the campaigning by the DMK alliance.

The DMK has allied with the Indian National Congress, the VCK, the MDMK, the communist parties, and the Indian Union Muslim League. Kanimozhi's candidature arrives at a time the two large Dravidian parties will go to polls without their Supreme Leaders M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. The AIADMK had faced intense factionalism in the wake of her demise, but DMK's MK Stalin managed to ward off a succession threat from elder brother MK Alagiri.