TN: Meet 'Election king' and India's most unsuccessful candidate; filed nomination for 227th time
PremiumThis is the 227th time he is filing the papers.
COIMBATORE : K Padmarajan, also known as the ‘Election King’ has for the 227th time filed his nomination for local body elections to be held in Coimbatore on 19 February.
The ‘Election King’ was the first among candidates to file the papers as date for filing of nomination for the polls started today.
With the highest number of contests, he found place in Guinness Book of World Records as the most unsuccessful candidate.
“It is the right of every citizen of India," says the 60-year-old tyre retreater .
Padmarajan, who has spent nearly 30 lakh in 30 years on elections, claims to occasionally receive threatening calls. “I was kidnapped in 1991 after I filed my nomination in Nandyal constituency in Andhra Pradesh. I don’t know who the kidnappers were but they let me go," he says.
In the tyre business, Padmarajan first contested from Mettur in 1986 as an independent and from there he contested against Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Lucknow), Manmohan Singh, P V Narasimha Rao (Nandyal), Pranab Mukherjee, Pratibha Patil, K R Narayanan and A P J Abdul Kalam. The 62-year-old Padmarajan is now contesting from Verakkalpudur (ward-2).
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