Stalin interviews OPS, DMK ministers for allotment of seats

Chennai: Chief minister M K Stalin on Wednesday started interviewing aspirants for Tamil Nadu assembly elections. Three time chief minister O Panneerselvam attended the interview along with his son O P Ravindranath seeking tickets to contest the poll from Bodinayakkanur and Andipatti constituencies in their native Theni district respectively.

A smiling OPS got down from his car and walked into DMk headquarters Anna Arivalayam where he sat along with other aspirants during the interview session. After his interview, Panneerselvam told reporters that Stalin will definitely form govt for the second straight term in the assembly election to be held next month.





The interview sessions began on Tuesday when aspirants from Puducherry were interviewed. On Wednesday, candidates from southern districts including Madurai, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Kanyakumari and Theni were conducted.

Sitting DMK ministers from southern districts also participated in the interview session. Social welfare minister Geetha Jeevan, dairy minister T Mano Thangaraj, revenue minister K K S S R Ramachandran, information technology minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, registration minister P Moorthy and others participated. Speaker M Appavu too participated in the interview in the morning session.

Unlike previous years, the interview was not conducted on a one-on-one basis but as a group, where aspirants of a constituency were called together. The interview was more of an interaction as Stalin read out the names of district secretaries and functionaries and asked them about winnability, the impact of welfare schemes, projects completed and those that are pending.

The aspirants of Killiyur constituency urged Stalin not allocate the seat to Congress. Congress legislative party (CLP) leader S Rajeshkumar is the sitting MLA there. Stalin said the interview session was not the platform to made such demands. After the interview, another section of DMK workers objected to the demand of not allotting Killiyur seat to Congress. The argument resulted in a a minor clash between the two groups.