M Karunanidhi, President of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, filed his nomination papers to contest the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections from Thiruvarur.
He is the incumbent MLA from this constituency, also his native town, and is seeking to retain this seat. He holds an unblemished record of wins in every one of the elections he contested to the Assembly since 1957. He has also been a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council once.
Karunanidhi arrived at the District Election Office at 12.50 pm accompanied by former union ministers Dayanidhi Maran and TR Baalu.
The 93-year-old DMK leader will address a public meeting later today in Tiruvarur. He is on a three-week campaign trail and arrived here last night after addressing a series of public meetings in Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi and Mayiladuthurai. He kicked off his campaign trail last Saturday with a public meeting in Chennai at Saidapet.
He was first elected to the Assembly from Kulitalai, now a part of Karur District, in 1957 and from Thanjavur in 1962. Subsequently he has contested from various constituencies in Chennai – Saidapet, Anna Nagar, Harbour and Chepauk. In 2011 he contested from Thiruvarur and won with a margin of more than 50,000 votes.
Thiruvarur constituency, in the Cauvery Delta, primarily an agriculture-dependent area, has been the preserve of the DMK since 1996. Previously, from 1967 it has swayed between the DMK and the CPI (M).