The race between the Dravidian parties for the reign in Tamil Nadu has been unveiling unprecedented, significant, and surprising events ahead of the polls from picking the candidates to offering tickets for the party functionaries to take on the rival. As the state is three weeks away from the polls, both the ADMK and DMK have announced the candidates and constituencies which had displayed a tight battle for the crucial assembly polls. 

While the ADMK had announced the list of candidates for the polls on Wednesday, DMK has released its final list of candidates and constituencies on Friday and the party will be contesting in 173 seats directly by allotting 61 seats to the allied parties. DMK and ADMK will be locking horns in 129 constituencies directly while the batons to defeat the rivals in the rest of the constituencies were given to the allied parties. 

Though DMK had majorly offered tickets to bigheads and sitting legislators, the Tamil Nadu Opposition party has also provided prospects for the newcomers and some new faces were fielded to take on powerful ministers and leaders of ADMK. Let's take a look at some of the crucial clashes between ADMK and DMK. 

• Edappadi - Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami will be contesting from the Edappadi constituency and DMK has fielded Salem district party functionary Sampath Kumar to take on the Chief Minister. 
• Bodinayakanur - Being one of the significant clashes, DMK's candidate Thanga Tamilselvan, who was with ADMK and with AMMK before joining DMK, will be taking on Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. Tamilselvan is a strong critic of Panneerselvam and he is all set for the battle of defeating Panneerselvam in his two-decade stronghold. 
• Villupuram - ADMK's incumbent legislator and Tamil Law Minister CV Shanmugam will be contesting again in this constituency and to take him, DMK has fielded Lakshmanan, who was ADMK MP and joined DMK last year. 
• Thondamuthur - Sitting minister SP Velumani, who has become one of the power centers in ADMK, will be contesting again from this constituency, which he is representing for a decade. To fight him, DMK has named Karthikeya Sivasenapathy as its candidate. Sivasenapathy is DMK's Environment Wing Secretary and rose to fame through organizing Jallikattu protests in 2017. 
• Maduravoyal - Incumbent MLA and ADMK Minister Benjamin is contesting again and DMK has fielded Ganapathy, who is the party's local secretary. 
•  Avadi - Minister Mafoi Pandiarajan hopes to secure another term from Avadi but he must win Naseer, his contender from DMK, who the Tiruvallur Central district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Opposition party. 
• Jolarpettai - Tamil Nadu minister KC Veermani has got a ticket to contest again and he will be facing Dhevaraji of DMK, who is his relative. 
• Viralimalai - Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar will be contesting again from Viralimalai and he will be facing DMK's Palaniappan, who hopes not to lose this time like the 2016 assembly polls. 
• Kumarapalayam - Another power center of ADMK Thangamani will be contesting from Kumarapalayam in the upcoming polls and DMK has fielded local party functionary Venkatachalam to defeat the minister. 
• Royapuram - It's one of the must-win for DMK as ADMK has fielded senior minister D Jayakumar in his constituency. Jayakumar is the strongest critic of DMK and the state opposition party hopes to defeat him and it has fielded Moorthy to take on the minister. 
• Saidapet - Saidapet is going to witness the race between two former mayors of Chennai. ADMK has fielded Saidhai Duraisamy while DMK has fielded incumbent legislator Ma Subramanian. Through the tight race, Saidapet will naturally become one of the most watching constituencies. 
• Gobichettipalayam - Senior minister and ADMK leader Sengottaiyan will be contesting again from this constituency to take on the minister, DMK has fielded local party leader Manimaran. 
• Karur - Karur is one of the significant clashes between ADMK and DMK to watch for. Karur has presented Transport ministers to the state in recent times. ADMK candidate MR Vijayabaskar, who is the current transport minister, is going to face Senthil Balaji, who is the former transport minister. Senthil Balaji was the transport minister in Jayalalithaa's cabinet and he was expelled by her from the party. After her demise, Senthil Balaji has joined AMMK and later he joined DMK and now got the ticket to contest in the polls from his native district Karur. 
• Rajapalayam - ADMK's Rajendra Balaji is the newbie for this constituency that was expected by BJP for actress Gautami. Minister Rajendra Balaji has been representing the Sivakasi constituency and now, he has got a ticket to contest in Rajapalayam and he will be facing DMK's incumbent MLA Thangapandian. 
• Aruppukottai - Former minister Vaigai Selvan has got ADMK's ticket to contest and to take him, DMK has fielded senior leader KKSSR Ramachandran in the constituency, and being a veteran politician, Ramachandran will bid to have a revival. 

DMK President MK Stalin will be contesting from Kolathur and he will be taking on ADMK's Adhirajaram while Stalin's son Udhayanidhi Stalin, who is all set for his first assembly polls, will be contesting from Chepauk- Triplicane and he will facing PMK's Kasaali. ADMK will be contesting in 177 constituencies and DMK will be contesting in 174 constituencies. However, some of the allied parties in DMK will be going to the polls in DMK's 'Rising Sun' symbol through which the symbol will be on the ballots in 187 seats. 

While ADMK has fielded 15 women, DMK has named 12 women candidates. It is the first election for Edappadi Palaniswami as the Chief Minister and for MK Stalin as DMK President. As ADMK hopes to form the government for the third consecutive time, DMK prepares for the battle to oust the ADMK regime, which undoubtedly has become the race at its best.