Chennai, Mar 17: Shifting from Chepauk in Chennai, once considered a DMK bastion, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi will contest the April 13 Tamil Nadu assembly polls from Tiruvarur, trying his luck from his birth place for the first time.
Karunanidhi has never lost an election right since 1957 when he made his maiden entry into the electoral battlefield.
Following in the footsteps of his father Karunanidhi, Deputy Chief minister M K Stalin would also seek election from a new segment- Kolathur in the city-- moving away from Thousand Lights constituency.
Party General Secretary and senior leader K Anbazhgan, who currently represents Harbour constituency, has been fielded from Villiwakkam.
Two senior ministers Arcot N Veerasamy and Ko Si Mani have been dropped due to their 'ill health', Karunandihi told reporters releasing the list of candidates at the Anna Arivalayam, DMK headquarters.
The party, which will contest 119 seats, has fielded 58 new faces and eleven women.
Former AIADMK ministers S Muthusamy and S Sathiyamurthy, who recently joined DMK, have been given nomination.
Asked whether his party would be able to get an absolute majority since it had fielded only 119 candidates in the 234-member House, Karunanidhi said "we are entering the fray with that hope."
DMK has allotted 63 seats to its key UPA ally Congress and rest to other partners of the front led by the Dravidian party.
Asked why he chose Tiruvarur, Karunanidhi said when he entered electoral politics in 1957, he wanted to contest from there but it was a reserved constituency which, however, had been de-reserved after the recent delimitation.
"The politicians then made it as a reserved constituency to prevent me from contesting from there," he claimed.
Karunanidhi said he would begin his campaign from Tiruvarur on March 23 and file his nomination on March 24.
86-year-old Karunanidhi had his education in the then district board High School at Tiruvarur and his family migrated there from his birth place, the nearby Thirukuvalai village, to enable him continue his studies.
It is at this place in 1937 that he entered public life when he led an anti-Hindi agitation.
Karunandihi was first elected to the state assembly from Kulithalai in Karur district. In 1962, he won from Thanjavur and in 1967 and 1971, he was elected from Saidapet in Chennai. He won the Annanagar seat in 1977, 1980, 1984 and 1989.
In 1991, he had contested from Harbour and got elected to the state assembly and from Chepauk in 1996, 2001 and 2006.
Stalin, who has won four out of six times that he had contested from Thousand Lights, where Karunanidhi's Gopalapuram residence is located, has moved to suburban Kolathur in North Chennai which gave a lead of about 20,000 votes to party's TKS ELangovan in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Asked what prompted Stalin to go for a change, Karunanidhi said "ask him" pointing to Stalin who only smiled.
A one-time Mayor of Chennai corporation, Stalin had been arrested by the AIADMK government for his active role in supporting the students of Queen Mary's College in his constituency when the girls were up in arms against a proposal to demolish the popular institution.
Karunanidhi, for whom this election could perhaps be the last considering his age, has retained most of the Ministers and sitting MLAs besides giving a ticket to Tamil Nadu Speaker R Avudaiyappan who retains Ambasamudiram while his Depurty, VP Duraisamy, will be fighting from Rasipuram.
Asked about the political circumstances leading to the possible formation of a Third Front comprising DMDK and Left parties, he said "I am not the one to rejoice at the miseries of others."
CPI (M), CPI and DMDK, allies of AIADMK, are reportedly unhappy over the lead partner's unilaterally announcing its candidates list for 160 constituencies, several of which are on their wish list. PTI
