The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Friday released its first list of six candidates for the April 6 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. Elections to the 234-seat Tamil Nadu Assembly will be held in a single phase on April 6, and the results will be announced on May 2.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami will contest from the Edappadi constituency in his home district Salem, and his deputy O Panneerselvam will stand from Bodinayakanur in Theni district, which is his native place.

State Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar will stand from the Bodinaickanur seat, and Law Minister CVe Shanmugam will contest from Villupuram. The AIADMK contender in Srivaikuntam constituency is SP Shanmuganathan, and in Nilakkottai (state Assembly constituency) is S Thenmozhi.

The party’s manifesto is likely to be released soon. The AIADMK’s main rival in the state, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, will release its candidate list on March 10, reported The New Indian Express.

Filing of nominations for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections will start on March 12 and end on March 19.

The AIADMK released its first list of candidates two days after expelled party leader VK Sasikala abruptly announced that she was stepping away from politics. Sasikala, a close aide of former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa, was released from prison on January 27 after a four-year-long sentence in a corruption case.

After being released from jail, Sasikala had announced that she would contest the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, but the Palaniswami-led AIADMK repeatedly refused to let her back into the party. In February, Sasikala even approached a court in Chennai seeking early hearing of a civil suit filed to reclaim her general secretary post in the party.