As Tamilisai Eyes Puducherry Seat For Lok Sabha Polls, Nirmala Sitharaman May Opt For Tiruchy

It appears Tamilisai Soundarrajan, currently Governor of Telangana and Puducherry, is preparing to come back into active politics. She has been pressing for the Union Territory (UT) seat, which Rangasamy’s party that heads the alliance, has marked for the BJP. With her term as Governor coming to an end, she was looking for an MP seat to contest after her unsuccessful foray in 2019 when she lost to Kanimozhi in the Lok Sabha polls. As she is a favoured candidate in a winnable seat in the UT, it seems Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has had to strike off one of the seats she was aiming at in Tamil Nadu where she must stand for the polls as BJP has decided to field all its ministers and senior leaders in elective seats. The current FM had been eyeing the Puducherry as well as the South Chennai seats. But Kamal Hasaan will be a high-profile candidate for the DMK+ front in South Chennai and the finance minister may have to move further south to seek a suitable seat. She might now pick the Tiruchirapalli constituency since she had gone to college and graduated from there. Kamal favours South Chennai for his foray into Lok Sabha polls as Coimbatore, from where he fought the last assembly elections, has been marked for Mahendran of DMK.