Chennai, Mar 15 (IANS): Former Chief Minister of Puducherry and All India NR Congress (AINRC) President N. Rangaswamy will contest the Assembly elections in the Union Territory from two constituencies.

The former Chief Minister has already filed his nomination from the Thattanchavady Assembly constituency. Rangaswamy will also contest from the Yanam constituency. Former health minister Mallladi Krishna Rao, who has resigned from the constituency, has opted out of the contest and will support the candidature of the former Chief Minister.

V. Arumugham, who was defeated by Rangaswamy in the Indira Nagar constituency, has filed his nomination as an AINRC candidate. In the 2016 elections, Rangaswamy had defeated Arumugham, who was a Congress candidate at the time.

Meanwhile, former parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister, K. Lakshminarayan, filed his nomination papers from the Rajbhavan constituency and will take on former education minister S.P. Sivakumar of the Congress-DMK alliance.

Congress leaders and sitting MLAs, R.K.R. Anantharaman and T. Jayamurthy, have filed their nomination papers to contest the Assembly elections from Manavely and Ariyankuppam, respectively.

A total of 12 DMK candidates filed their nominations on Monday.

The 30-member Puducherry Assembly will go to the polls on April 6. The results will be declared on May 2.