DMK's South Chennai candidate kicks off election campaign says getting welcome with thumping sign

A large number of party workers and alliance party cadres accompanied her in support.

"This is such a rousing welcome for us as we began our campaign from T Nagar and CT Nagar. People are welcoming us in huge numbers, that shows that our Chief Minister's Dravidian model government has reached out to people. So we are very confident of winning this constituency," she said while speaking to ANI during the campaign.

Thangapandian is contesting against former Telangana and Puducherry Governor and BJP candidate from South Chennai, Tamilisai Soundararajan. While from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), J Jayavardhan has filed nominations for South Chennai from where had been MP between 2014-2019.

"The ground for DMK is so hopeful for us and we are already victorious. We are facing the people with the achievements done by the Dravidian model government. We are confident for thumbs up victory," DMK candidate Thangapandiyan said earlier after filing nominations.

Earlier Soundarajan who gave up her Governor's post to contest the election seemed hopeful of winning on a development plank.

"The people want PM Modi to be Prime Minister again. South Chennai is a constituency with very responsible people and they're longing for a good parliamentarian. The present MP is not very approachable. I will be very approachable. When I was in a constitutional post, I also used to interact with people. I resigned from the governor's post because I want to work directly for the people," Soundararajan told ANI on Monday.

Voting for all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will be held in the first phase of the general elections on April 19.

In the 2019 general elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, comprising the Congress, VCK, MDMK, CPI, CPI(M), IUML, MMK, KMDK, TVK, and AIFB, registered a landslide victory, winning 38 of the 39 seats in the state.

In 2019, DMK won 23 Lok Sabha seats with a 33.2 per cent vote share, Congress bagged 8 seats with a 12.9 per cent vote and CPI won two seats in Tamil Nadu.

The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats in the country will be held in seven phases starting April 19. The counting of the votes will take place on June 4. (ANI)