Chennai: Of the 174 candidates the DMK will be fielding, more than 100 could be young faces and first time contestants in assembly elections. But the list the party is expected to announce on Wednesday will likely include senior leaders too, like Duraimurugan, K Ponmudi, E V Velu, K N Nehru, I Periyasamy and J Anbazhagan.
There may be nearly 20 women candidates on the DMK list. Karunanidhi himself will contest from Tiruvarur and party treasurer M K Stalin from Kulathur. Senior leaders were engaged in giving final shape to the list of candidates on Tuesday night.
Party general secretary K Anbazhagan has recused himself from contesting, citing ill-health, and the leadership has accepted his request.
Among the prominent faces not to be given a seat is former minister Pongalur Palanisamy.
A prominent face among the youth brigade may be Anbil Mahesh, son of late DMK leader Anbil Poyyamozhi. Mahesh is a key member of Stalin's team and could contest from a central TN constituency.
Sources said estranged son M K Alagiri and many other members of Karunanidhi's family members did hectic lobbying for Alagiri's son Durai. Alagiri, during a recent meeting with Karunanidhi, had even offered to stay away from politics if a seat was given to his son. But Karunanidhi shot it down citing Durai's recent offensive comments against Stalin on various social media platforms.
Former Chennai mayor M Subramaniam is being considered for Saidapet or Velachery. The DMK leadership is unlikely to field a heavyweight in R K Nagar against chief minister Jayalalithaa as it has consistently lost from there in recent times, except in 1989 and 1996.
The party leadership is against senior leaders changing their constituencies and is unlikely to consider former minister Suresh Rajan's candidature because he has asked to be moved from his traditional Kanyakumari seat. Late Veerapandi Arumugam's son Raja was considered for Salem, but his request to move to another seat could work against him.