LS polls: Former Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami casts his vote in Salem

Salem (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 19 : Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday casts his vote at a polling booth in Salem.
Tamil Nadu is going to the polls for all 39 of its parliamentary constituencies today in the first phase of Lok Sabha polls.
While the DMK-led alliance is hopeful of repeating its 2019 performance in the state, the BJP has put all its might into the polls and has held a hectic campaign after stitching an alliance. The polls are also crucial for AIADMK, which came out of BJP-led NDA in September last year.
The state is witnessing interesting battles on several seats with some key leaders in the contest.
In Coimbatore, state BJP chief K Annamalai is pitted against DMK's Ganapathy P Rajkumar, a former mayor, and AIADMK's Singai Ramachandran. Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan, who was the BJP candidate from Coimbatore in the past two Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and 2014, had suffered back-to-back defeats. The seat is held by CPI's PR Natarajan.
K Annamalai released a manifesto for the Coimbatore constituency for the Lok Sabha elections. The promises include the establishment of the Indian Institute of Management, the offices of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Coimbatore city.
Ganapathy P Rajkumar has also exuded confidence of his victory and alleged that the BJP has done nothing for Coimbatore.
DMK's Kanimozhi is contesting against AIADMK's R Sivasami Velumani in the Thoothukudi Lok Sabha seat. Kanimozhi comfortably won the seat in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and defeated former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan by over 3.47 lakh votes.
Tamilisai Soundararajan is contesting this Lok Sabha poll from the Chennai South Lok Sabha seat. DMK leader Thamizhachi Thangapandian is the sitting MP from the seat. AIADMK has fielded Jayavardhan, who came a distant second in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Vidhya Rani, the daughter of slain sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, is in the fray from the Krishnagiri constituency and has been fielded by Naam Tamilar Katchi. She is facing the BJP's C Narasimhan and Congress leader K Gopinath, a three-time MLA.
Congress' Dr A Chellakumar won the previous two Lok Sabha elections from the Krishnagiri constituency.
Former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran is recontesting from the Chennai Central seat. He is facing the BJP's Vinoj P Selvam and the DMDK's B Parthasarathy.
DMK's A Raja, a former union minister, is in the fray from Nilgris. He is up against Union Minister and BJP leader L Murugan. AIADMK has fielded Lokesh Tamilselvan.
Nilgiris has six assembly segments - Udhagamandalam, Cuddalore, Coonoor, Mettupalayam, Avanashi, and Bhavanisagar, and has 14,18,914 voters.
Sivaganga constituency will witness a three-cornered contest with sitting Congress MP Karti Chidambaram taking on the BJP's Devanathan Yadav, a businessman, and A Xavierd of AIADMK.
Karti, the son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, is seeking victory from the seat for the third time.
In the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats in the state.
In Ramanathapuram, the BJP is supporting former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who is contesting as an independent candidate against AIADMK's Jayaperumal and K Navaskani from the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the DMK. Naam Tamilar Katchi has fielded Chandraprabha.
The contest in Virudhunagar constituency is between incumbent Congress MP B Manickam Tagore and two high-profile candidates- actor and producer Radikaa Sarathkumar of the BJP; and V Vijayaprabhakaran of the DMDK, who is the son of late actor Vijayakant.
The constituency known as the birthplace of K Kamraj, one of the tallest leaders in Tamil Nadu politics, lies adjacent to Madurai and is home to many cracker manufacturing units, matchbox and handloom units as well as offset printing presses. Tagore has won twice from the constituency. Radikaa and Vijayaprabhakaran have conducted an intense campaign to wrest the seat from him.
INDIA bloc, which includes DMK and Congress, is hoping for a repeat of 2019 performance.