The CPI(M), a constituent of the DMK-led alliance, has renominated Su. Venkatesan in Madurai and fielded R. Sachidanandam in Dindigul for the Lok Sabha election.
Addressing reporters in Chennai, party State secretary K. Balakrishnan said on Friday that the CPI(M) had decided unanimously on the candidates.
Mr. Venkatesan is also the honorary president of the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association and a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel Kaaval Kottam in 2011. In recent times, his has been among the prominent voices from Tamil Nadu questioning the BJP government in the Centre over the inordinate delay in establishing the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai.
The Madurai Lok Sabha constituency comprises the Assembly segments of Melur, Madurai East, Madurai North, Madurai South, Madurai Central and Madurai West. Four of them are held by the DMK.
Mr. Sachidanandam is the party’s secretary of Dindigul district, where a sizeable portion of the workforce is engaged in textile spinning mills and as agricultural labourers in plantations. Dindigul is being held by P. Velusamy of the DMK. No CPI(M) candidate had entered the fray in the constituency since 1952.
The Dindigul Lok Sabha constituency comprises the Assembly segments of Palani, Oddanchatram, Athoor, Nilakottai, Natham,, and Dindigul. The DMK holds three of them.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the CPI(M) was part of the DMK-led alliance and its candidates were elected from Madurai and Coimbatore (P.R. Natarajan).
