Jayalalitha announces candidates for TN polls

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief J Jayalalitha on Monday announced a list of 160 candidates for the April 13 Tamil Nadu assembly polls.

A list of 41 candidates to be fielded by actor Vijaykanth’s party Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMKK) were also made known.

This is the AIADMK leader’s second list after the first list led to protests from alliance partners like the CPI-M.

Earlier on Sunday, the Opposition alliance in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, led by Jayalalithaa, suffered a setback as Vaiko’s MDMK decided to boycott the polls following differences over seat-sharing arrangement with the bigger partner.

Vaiko said his party will boycott the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry elections after being offered much lesser number of seats by the AIADMK than the MDMK had asked for.

The MDMK wanted at least 21 seats to contest in this elections, after having fielded candidates in 35 seats in last polls.

However, Jayalalithaa had offered the party only 12 seats.