The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Wednesday released its first list of 23 candidates for the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, fielding several senior leaders and former ministers
from their traditional constituencies.
Party general secretary and Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami will contest from the Edappadi constituency in Salem district, his home turf, reaffirming the party’s reliance on established leaders for the upcoming polls.
Among the prominent names in the list is senior leader KP Munusamy, who will contest from Veppanahalli in Krishnagiri district, while Dindigul C Srinivasan has been fielded from Dindigul. Veteran legislator Natham R Viswanathan will seek re-election from Natham constituency, and former minister SP Velumani has been nominated from Thondamuthur, a constituency he has represented earlier.
Former minister D Jayakumar, a prominent face of the party in Chennai, has been fielded from Royapuram in north Chennai.
Rajya Sabha MP and former minister C Ve Shanmugam has been nominated from Mailam in Villupuram district, while former health minister C Vijayabaskar will contest from Viralimalai.
The party has also nominated several leaders from their established political bases.
P Thangamani will contest from Kumarapalayam, Sellur K Raju from Madurai West, KP Anbalagan from Palacode, R Kamaraj from Nannilam, and OS Manian from Vedaranyam. Former ministers Kadambur C Raju and RB Udhayakumar have been fielded from Kovilpatti and Thirumangalam, respectively.
KT Rajenthra Bhalaji will contest from Sivakasi.
Other candidates named in the list include P Benjamin, SS Krishnamurthy, VV Rajan Chellappa, KC Karuppannan, KC Veeramani, MR Vijayabaskar and Thamarai S Rajendran.
The AIADMK is the first major party in Tamil Nadu to announce its candidates for the 2026 Assembly elections, although the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) has already released a full list for all 234 constituencies.
The AIADMK is leading the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the state and has allotted 27 seats to the BJP, 18 to the PMK and 11 to the AMMK as part of seat-sharing arrangements.
