Through releasing the final list of candidates and constituencies, the Tamil Nadu ruling ADMK had combinedly shocked and surprised the leaders and members of the party. The list has raised many eyebrows as it was prepared with popular faces and with the shockwaves of rejecting candidacy to some ministers and legislators and the development has come when it was speculated that the current ministers and MLAs would again get the party ticket to contest in the same constituencies.

On Wednesday, the ADMK party had released the final list of candidates for the upcoming polls, and this the second list while the first list carried six candidates including Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam. The second list of candidates has come in line with the announcements of the list of constituencies for the allied parties of BJP and PMK. The ADMK party had received over 8,000 nominations from the partymen to contest in the assembly polls. 

The second list has contained 171 candidates and in total including the first list of candidates, ADMK will be contesting in 177 seats directly. In the second list, most of the sitting ministers had got the ticket - Mafoi Pandiarajan (Avadi), Dindugul Sreenivasan (Dindigul), Benjamin (Maduravoyal), Thangamani (Kumarapalayam), SP Velumani (Thondamuthur), KA Sengottaiyan (Gobichettipalayam), MR Vijayabaskar (Karur), Udumalai Radhakrishnan (Udumalai), and OS Manian (Vedaranyam). 

The list also includes ministers C Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai), RB Udhayakumar (Thirumangalam), Sellur Raju (Madurai West), KC Veeramani (Jolarpet), Sevur Ramachandran (Arani), Saroja (Rasipuram), KC Karuppanan (Bhavani), Kadambur Raju (Kovilpatti), V Saroja (Rasipuram), KT Rajendra Balaji (Rajapalayam), KP Anbalagan (Palacode), Vellamandi Natarajan (Trichy East), MC Sampath (Cuddalore), R Kamaraj (Nannilam) and Rajalakshmi (Sankarankovil). While most of the sitting ministers had got tickets to contest in the polls, three ministers - Baskaran, Valarmathi, and Nilofer Kafeel had been ruled out from offering candidacy. 

The ADMK leadership has awarded tickets to former ministers including BV Ramana (Thiruvallur), who is in CBI probe over the gutkha scam, Madhavaram Moorthy (Madhavaram), S Gokula Indira (Anna Nagar, Chennai), P Valarmathi (Alandur, Chennai), TKM Chinnaiya (Tambaram, Chennai), Somasundaram (Uthiramerur), Agri Krishnamoorthy (Polur), KV Ramalingam (Erode West), Selvaraj (Mettupalayam), Anandan (Palladam), and Damodharan (Kinathukadavu).

Some of the former ministers who are going to contest in the polls include Natham Viswanathan (Natham), Paranjothi (Manachanallur), Vaidhyalingam -Rajya Sabha MP (Orathanadu), Vaigaiselvan (Aruppukottai), and Subbiah (Ambasamuthiram). Notably, KP Munusamy, who is Rajya Sabha MP, will also contest in the assembly polls and he will be contesting from Veppanahalli, Krishnagiri. Of the total 177 candidates, only 15 are women and around 50 candidates had completed high school while the other 50 candidates are graduates.

The list of women candidates includes Gokula Indira, Valarmathi, Kanitha Sampath (Seyyur), Maragatham Kumaravel (Madhuranthagam), Paridha (Gudiyattam), Jothi Balakrishna Reddy (Hosur), Chitra (Yercaud), Saroja (Rasipuram), Indira Gandhi (Thuraiyur), Jaya Bharathi (Kantharvakottai), Pon Saraswathi (Tiruchengode), Lakshmi Ganesan (Sivakasi), Keerthika Muniyasamy (Mudukalathoor), Thenmozhi (Nilakottai), and Rajalakshmi (Sankarankovil). 

While the party has provided tickets for 45 sitting MLAs for the second time, the party had also ignored the tickets to some of the notable MLAs that had shocked the party. Legislators like Semmalai, Arukutti, Rajavarman, Jagaiyan, Narasimhan, Kallakurichi Prabhu, and Manoranjitham have been ruled out from candidacy for another term. House Speaker Dhanapal has again given a ticket to contest from the Avinashi constituency. While Rajendra Balaji was elected from Sivakasi last time, he has now been awarded the ticket to contest from the Rajapalayam constituency. 

Some of the other notable faces include Deputy Speaker Pollachi Jayaraman (Pollachi), Saidai Duraisamy (Saidapet), Sathyanarayan (T Nagar), R Natraj (Mylapore), Virugai Ravi (Virugambakkam), Adhi Rajaram (Kolathur), JCD Prabhakar (Villivakkam), Alexander (Ambattur), and Rajesh (RK Nagar). As the second and final list had announced 171 candidates, the first list was released earlier in which it has said that Edappadi Palaniswami will be contesting from Edappadi, Panneerselvam from Bodinayakanur, D Jayakumar from Royapuram, CVe Shanmugam from Villupuram, Shanmuganathan from Srivaikundam, and Thenmozhi from Nilakottai. 

The ADMK will be fielding 177 candidates directly while it has allotted 23 seats to PMK and 20 seats to BJP. The state ruling party currently has 14 seats in its hand and it has been expected that these 14 seats will be split and awarded to three allied parties - Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC- GK Vasan) and Puthiya Tamilagam Katchi (Krishnaswamy). Tamil Nadu will go to the polls on April 6 and the results will be counted on May 2nd during which the winner will be announced. This is the first election for Edappadi Palaniswami as the Chief Minister.