Seeman's Naam Tamilar Katchi likely to contest all 234 seats in TN

The Naam Tamilar Katchi is likely to contest the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections alone and announce its list of 234 candidates at a public event in YMCA, Royapettah on March 7. Like the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Naam Tamilar Katchi sources said that 50% of their candidates would be women thereby fielding 117 women and 117 men for the polls.

A source from Naam Tamilar Katchi told TNM, “The party has decided to contest alone in the upcoming elections. Our founder Seeman will introduce all 234 candidates to the people on March 7. The party will introduce 117 women and 117 men candidates. For this Assembly election, LGBTQ people have not shown a willingness to contest, but if they do, we will field them.”

For the upcoming Assembly elections, the party is also mulling to field Dalit candidates in general constituencies. “In order to ensure equality in the candidates' list, we are planning to make Dalits contest in unreserved constituencies,” the source said.  

In the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2016, Naam Tamilar Katchi contested 231 seats out of the 234 seats. However, candidates lost their deposit in 229 seats and received 1.06% of the vote share in the elections. The party received a total of 4,58,007 votes across the state, as per data by the Election Commission of India.

In 2019, Naam Tamilar Katchi fielded candidates in all the Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. However, the party’s candidates did not win in any of the 40 seats. 

Tamil Nadu will go to the polls in a single phase on April 6 and the results of the election will be announced on May 2. The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is already in force in the state.