Standing for the 236th election, K Padmarajan filed his nomination on Monday, November 6, as an independent candidate from the Gajwel constituency, aiming for a win against current chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Padmarajan began his candidature in the Mettur constituency of Tamil Nadu during the 1988 Assembly elections. Since then, he has contested against 235 candidates, including former Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PV Narasimha Rao. Most recently, he challenged Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai in the Shiggaon constituency.
In the 2019 general elections, he stood against AICC’s former chief Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, Kerala. He managed to get 6,273 votes in Mettur during the 2011 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Other than politics, Padmarajan runs a modest tyre repair shop. While many know him for his relentless electoral pursuits, few know he also administers homoeopathy medicines and calls himself a ‘doctor’. His passion for politics has seen him invest approximately Rs 1 crore in contesting elections.
Padmarajan’s recent affidavit, dated November 4, reveals that neither he nor his family have ever filed income tax returns. He declared movable assets amounting to Rs 1,10,000, which include a moped. He has also reported an annual income of Rs 1 lakh.
