T.N. Assembly poll | BJP candidate list out; Union Minister of State L. Murugan to contest from Avanashi

L. Murugan; Nainaar Nagenthran | Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan; A. Shaikmohideen

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a constituent of the AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu, has released the list of all 27 candidates for the Assembly elections to be held in the state on Friday, April 3, 2026, after days of uncertainty.

As widely expected, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan is joining the fray from the Avanashi (Reserved) Assembly segment. In previous Assembly polls, Mr. Murugan had contested unsuccessfully from Dharapuram (Reserved) segment.

BJP State President Nainar Nagenthran has left his home district of Tirunelveli and is joining the fray from Sattur Assembly segment in Virudhunagar district. Mr. Nagenthran contested from Tirunelveli constituency five times and was successful three times; twice on an AIADMK ticket and once as a BJP candidate.

Former State BJP president and former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan is contesting from Mylapore Assembly segment in Chennai. This is his fourth time joining the fray in the Assembly elections in the state.

While BJP Mahila Morcha national president and incumbent Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan, who defeated Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan by a narrow margin, is contesting from Coimbatore North this time, S. Vijayadharani, who is in the Congress and defected to the BJP, has been given the ticket from Vilavancode, which he has won three times.

Other candidates include M. Rajasimha Mahindra from Avadi, Nagesh Kumar from Thalli, C. Elumalai from Tiruvannamalai, SD Premkumar (Reserved) from Rasipuram, Krithika Shivkumar from Modakurichi, Bhojarajan from Udhagamandalam, S. Thangaraj from Tiruppur (South), Govi. Chandru of Tiruvarur and M. Muruganandam of Thanjavur.

C. Udhayakumar will contest from Gandharvakottai (Reserved), N. Ramachandran from Pudukottai and State president of BJP’s women wing Kavitha Srikanth from Aranthangi. KC Thirumaran, who heads the South Indian Forward Bloc team, will compete from Tirupattur. Pon. V. Balaganapathy from Manamadurai (Reserved), Raama Sreenivasan from South Madurai, GBS K. Nagendran from Ramanathapuram, Ananthan Ayyaswamy from Vasudevanallur (Reserved), KRM Radhakrishnan from Tiruchendur, SP Balakrishnan from Radhapuram, incumbent MLA MR Gandhi from Nagercoil T. Sivakumar will compete. P. Ramesh of Colachel and Padmanabhapuram.

Annamalai was underestimated

Former State BJP President K. Annamalai’s name was not in the list. After the AIADMK’s latest constituency allotment exercise, it was revealed that there were no seats deemed “available” for it. But there was speculation in recent days about a possible constituency swap to accommodate Mr Annamalai. However, it did not yield results.