TRICHY: In all, 139 candidates will face the electorate in the Lok Sabha elections to six constituencies in the central region. This was revealed with the finalization of candidates on the last day of withdrawal of nominations.Of the 24 candidates in the fray in Trichy, Congress candidate S Thirunavukkarasar, DMDK candidate Dr V Elangovan and AMMK (independent) candidate Sarubala Thondaiman were the top three contestants. V Anandharajan of Makkal Needhi Maiam and V Vinod of Naam Tamilar Katchi were also in the fray along with 15 independent candidates.In terms of the number of contestants, Karur constituency topped the list in the central region with 42, out of which 32 were independents. A woman independent candidate withdrew her nomination on Friday. The fight was already on between AIADMK candidate M Thambidurai and Congress candidate in the DMK alliance, S Jothimani. AMMK (independent) candidate B S N Thangavel, Makkal Needhi Maiam candidate Dr R Hariharan, Naam Tamilar Katchi candidate R Karuppiah and others were also in the fray.The list of candidates in Perambalur parliamentary constituency remained unchanged at 19 as none of the candidates finalized in the scrutiny on Wednesday withdrew their nominations. Among them, AIADMK candidate N R Sivapathy, IJK candidate T R Paarivendhar in DMK symbol and Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) R Muthulakshmi were the candidates of recognized national and state political parties. Considered to be one of the tough contenders, AMMK (independent) candidate M Rajasekaran joined the club of 12 independent candidates with gift box symbol as the party was not registered.Four candidates including K Shanthi of Naam Tamilar Katchi came under the category of registered political parties.In Thanjavur, a total of 12 candidates are in the fray while DMK’s S S Palanimanickam and TMC candidate in AIADMK alliance N R Natarajan remained top contenders. There were no withdrawals. AMMK (independent) candidate Pon Murugesan, Naam Tamilar Katchi candidate N Krishnakumar and Makkal Needhi Maiam candidate Sambath Ramadoss joined the race with six other independents.Nagappattinan (SC) constituency retained all the 15 candidates as none withdrew. AIADMK candidate S Saravanan and CPI candidate M Selvarasu are locked in a tough fight while 13 others including Makkal Needhi Maiam, Naam Tamilar Katchi and seven independents have also pulled up their socks for the race. AMMK candidate T Sengodi was also one of the independents. Mayiladuthurai constituency came second to Karur constituency in terms of number of candidates. As per the final list, a total of 27 candidates were contestants here though the key battle was between DMK candidate S Ramalingam and AIADMK’s S Aasaimani.

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