Tamil Nadu assembly elections 2026: Dissonance in DMK over candidate list

Chennai: DMK's candidate list has left some of the aspirants and their supporters disgruntled after being denied tickets.

A day after chief minister M K Stalin announced the list of candidates for all the 164 seats DMK is contesting, supporters of Tambaram MLA S R Raja, who was denied the seat, held a protest at Anna Arivalayam on Sunday. The cadres raised slogans demanding a seat for Raja, and party seniors had tough time pacifying them. On Saturday night, they gheraoed DMK treasurer T R Baalu.




"Even I know Raja from when he was very young and I too wanted him to be the MLA candidate, but the decision was taken by our CM," Baalu told them. Not convinced, they took out a protest to DMK headquarters.



T Nagar MLA J Karunanithi, who was also denied a seat, showed his resentment by resigning his post of DMK's area secretary. Partymen said Karunanithi was not given the seat as his victory margin in 2021 was a meager 137 votes, the lowest for the party. DMK men also expressed shock over the party denying a seat to Egmore MLA I Paranthamen.

Down south, DMK cadres resorted to a protest in front of the party office in Kanyakumari demanding seat for dairy minister T Mano Thangaraj. They wanted Padmanabhapuram constituency, given to CPM, to be reallocated to DMK for fielding Mano Thangaraj.

In Ottapidaram, a section of DMK cadres held an agitation against DMK's candidate P M Ramajayam. In Mettupalayam, DMK executive committee member T R Shanmugasundaram was also upset over being denied a ticket. In Singanallur, supporters of former Singanallur MLA N Karthik expressed unhappiness on social media over the seat allocated to Congress.

However, DMK organisational secretary R S Bharathi told TOI that this is usual during every election. "Whenever candidates are announced, a section will always be unhappy, but they will be pacified when the party leadership speaks to them directly," he said.