Tamil Nadu Assembly Election: BJP Releases List Of 27 Candidates; Fields L Murugan From Avanashi

The BJP on Friday released a list of 27 candidates for the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, fielding Union minister L Murugan from Avanashi seat and former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan from Mylapore. BJP Mahila Morcha national president Vanathi Srinivasan will enter the fray from Coimbatore (North), according to a list issued by the party.

The party has named Kirthika Shivkumar as its candidate from Modakkurichi, S Vijayadharani from Vilavancode and Nagesh Kumar from Thalli seat. Polling for the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly is slated to be held on April 23.

In a separate news, BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy demanded on Friday that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin should "come out very clear" regarding an alleged audio tape of DMK MP A Raja, asserting that the clip exposes the ruling party's true stance on social justice.

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An unverified audio clip was released on social media, which allegedly features Raja expressing grievances about his time in prison as an undertrial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, in which he was ultimately acquitted by the trial court. In the audio, the speaker (purported to be Raja) claims that during his imprisonment in Tihar Jail, the DMK leadership completely ignored him. He allegedly states that no one from the party visited him for two months until Kanimozhi was also brought to the prison.

Addressing a press conference here, Thirupathy said: "Now, that shows the Dravida model, DMK's attitude towards, you know, social justice. Raja very clearly says that he was in jail and till Kanimozhi came to Tihar Jail, nobody visited him from DMK." Challenging the DMK leadership to refute the claims, Thirupathy said the person who had released the audio had openly challenged DMK leadership to sue him if they have the guts.

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"Both Stalin and Raja have to come clean on this," Thirupathy added. Thirupathy also categorically dismissed ongoing media rumours regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's itinerary in the state. He noted that Tamil media outlets had been falsely reporting about a planned public rally in Tamil Nadu, and subsequently spreading fake news that the event was cancelled because the Prime Minister "suddenly got angry".

Condemning these speculative reports, he questioned where this "screenplay and direction" was coming from, terming them entirely baseless. Clarifying the official schedule, he stated, "He is coming here (Chennai), and he's going to Puducherry. He will be staying here tonight. And tomorrow he will be meeting some important people before leaving for Kochi in Kerala for campaigning."

(Note: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Daily Jagran staff. Credit:PTI)