Giving prominence to party stalwarts and featuring new faces, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Thursday announced a list of 129 candidates for the May 8 Assembly polls.

Twenty-three party members of the outgoing Assembly have been re-nominated by the party but five sitting MLAs have been denied ticket.

Two of the sitting MLAs, said to be close to the party's youth wing leader M K Stalin -- M Asokhan and Bharanikumar--are among those dropped.

Party president M Karunanidhi is contesting for the 11^th time. Karunanidhi, who has not tasted defeat since 1957, will contest from Chepauk in Central Chennai.

His son M K Stalin is seeking re-election from Thousand Lights, while party general secretary K Anbazhagan and treasurer N Veerasamy are contesting from Chennai Harbour and Anna Nagar constituencies respectively.

Party old guards Veerapandi S Arumugam and Ko Si Mani have been fielded from Salem-Two and Kumbakonam respectively.

Dr Poongothai, daughter of the slain DMK leader Aladi Aruna, has been nominated for Alankulam seat.

The list contains 13 women and four Muslims. Seventy-seven candidates are either post graduates or graduates, some of them even engineering degree holders.

Actor Napoleon has been shifted from Villivakkam to Mylapore to take on ruling AIADMK's S V Sekar, a popular comedian. Former professor of economics of

The Madras University M Naganathan, who is making his electoral debut, is the party's nominee for Triplicane seat.

Former MPs A T K Jayaseelan, P Selvendran, N Selvaraj and V P Doraisamy and former speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly P T R Palanivelrajan have been given tickets.

Releasing the list, Karunanidhi said the Democratic Progressive Alliance's poll campaign would be launched at a public meeting in Chennai on April 5.