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NEW DELHI: The Indian National Congress on Friday released a list of 27 candidates for Tamil Nadu, but the delay in the announcement highlighted how several party leaders were lobbying for tickets for their preferred candidates. After weeks of discussions, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge cleared the names of 27 candidates for the Assembly polls scheduled on April 23.

Kharge named Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K. Selvaperunthagai and Congress Legislature Party leader S. Rajeshkumar as candidates from Sriperumbudur and Killiyoor Assembly seats, respectively.

The party has yet to announce its candidate for Melur, as some leaders are reportedly pushing to field their supporters from the constituency.

New entrant GKM Tamil Kumaran, son of former Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) president G.K. Mani, has been allotted the Pennagaram seat despite strong opposition from several senior leaders.

Top party sources told Read that the delay in the announcement was due to the limited number of seats allocated to the Congress in its alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The Congress is contesting only 28 seats, of which 12 are held by sitting MLAs who have been retained. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the party had won 18 seats.

Sources said that the screening committee, headed by former Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister T.S. Singh Deo, met all 11 MPs (nine Lok Sabha and two Rajya Sabha members) to seek their views and recommendations for candidates.

Following this, several MPs—including Manickam Tagore, Sasikanth Senthil, R. Sudha, Karti Chidambaram, and S. Jothimani—submitted names. However, accommodating these requests became difficult given the limited number of seats. Party insiders said MPs had indicated that they were willing to accept the renomination of sitting MLAs, but wanted their recommendations to be considered for the remaining seats.

The party also conducted internal surveys in constituencies allotted by the DMK. Based on these findings, 12 sitting MLAs were renominated, leaving 16 seats to be distributed among candidates suggested by MPs, the state unit, and frontal organisations.

Tensions escalated when some MPs felt their suggestions were ignored and approached Rahul Gandhi over ticket allocation. According to sources, Rahul advised them to convey their concerns to party president Kharge.

Meanwhile, S. Jothimani publicly criticised the process on X, alleging a lack of transparency in candidate selection. She warned that if candidate selection continued in this manner, it could harm the party’s prospects.

In a development, Manickam Tagore, Lok Sabha MP from Virudhunagar, resigned as chairman of the state election management committee about a week ago due to ‘mounting pressure’ over candidate selection and dissatisfaction with the number of seats allocated to the Congress by the DMK.

After the candidate list was released, Tagore posted on X that the Central Election Committee is the party’s highest decision-making body and that decisions were taken after extensive deliberations under Kharge’s leadership, in the presence of Rahul.

He acknowledged that many deserving party workers could not be accommodated due to the limited number of seats and urged party members to unite behind the party candidates. Hinting at internal differences, Tagore called on party workers to set aside disagreements and work towards defeating rivals. He also urged for unity within the alliance led by Chief Minister M. K. Stalin.