Chennai, April 17 (IANS) IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil, who quit the service in September 2019 after the PM Modi regime was re-elected, is the Congress' candidate from the Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency for the forthcoming elections.

The Karnataka-cadre IAS officer resigned from the elite service three months after K Annamalai resigned from the IPS and joined the BJP.

Both are now fighting elections in opposing camps. While Sasikanth Senthil is the Congress’ candidate from Tiruvallur, Annamalai, who is the BJP’s Tamil Nadu President, is contesting from the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat.

Even though the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) and the BJP are in the fray in Tiruvallur, the fight is directly between Sasikanth Senthil and K Nalla Thambi of the DMDK, which is part of the AIADMK alliance.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Dr K Jayakumar of the Congress won the Tiruvallur seat after defeating the nearest AIADMK rival Dr P Venugopal by a margin of 3,56,955 votes.

While the DMK-led INDIA bloc has a definite advantage in the constituency, DMDK is banking on the support of AIADMK and other alliance partners.

DMDK General Secretary, Premalatha Vijayakanth wife of late Tamil superstar Vijayakanth told media persons that the party leader, K Nalla Thambi would win the seat.

Speaking to media persons at Tiruvallur she said that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the AIADMK was in alliance with the BJP and hence suffered a huge loss by a margin of 3,56,955 votes.

Premalatha Vijayakanth added that the alliance with the AIADMK was perfect and the DMDK preferred it, even though the BJP had tried to coerce it into joining the alliance.

Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency comprises Gummidipoondi, Ponneri, Tiruvallur, Poonamalle, Avadi and Madhavaram Assembly constituencies and all six were won by the INDIA bloc in the 2021 Assembly elections.

In the Gummidipoondi Assembly constituency, DMK leader, DJ Govindarajan defeated the PMK candidate, M Prakash by a margin of 50,938 votes.

Ponneri Assembly seat was won by Congress leader, Durai Chandrasekhar who defeated P Balaraman of the AIADMK by a margin of 9,689 votes in 2021.

DMK leader, VG Rajendran won the Thiruvallur seat in the Assembly elections by a margin of 22,701 votes defeating AIADMK leader Ramanah.

In Poonamalle, DMK leader A Krishnaswamy defeated SX Rajamannar of the PMK by a margin of 94,110 votes.

DMK leader, SM Nasar won the Avadi Assembly seat by a margin of 55,275 votes defeating AIADMK leader, K Pandiarajan.

In Madhavaram constituency, DMK leader, S Sudharshanam won the seat by a margin of 57,071 votes defeating AIADMK candidate, V Moorthy.

With all the six Assembly constituencies in the Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency being won by the INDIA bloc leaders, Sasikanth Senthil has a definite edge.

Sasikanth Senthil while speaking to said, “The work done by the DMK government led by Chief Minister MK Stalin during the floods has been accepted by the people. The welfare schemes initiated by the Stalin government have also been well-received by the masses. These factors along with the traditional support base of the Congress and DMK will give us a comfortable win.”

BJP candidate Pon V Balaganapathy and the NTK candidate, Jagadeesh Sundher are also in the fray.

However both the parties don’t expect to make any impact in the elections.

MJ Vidyadharan, political analyst told , “Congress candidate Sasikanth Senthil has a good lead here and is likely to win the seat. The DMDK candidate is a former MLA and a good organisation man. However the possibility of the DMDK wresting the seat is remote.”