The list of Bharatiya Janata Party candidates for the May 8 Tamil Nadu assembly polls is likely to be finalised by March 20, party state president C P Radhakrishnan said on Friday.

The finalised list will be sent to Delhi for approval and the party High Command will announce it formally, he told reporters in Chennai.

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Radhakrishnan also announced that an election cell, manifesto committee, finance committee and a negotiation committee headed by S Thirunavukkarasar, H Raja, M N Sugumaran Nambiyar and K N Lakshmanan respectively had been constituted.

At present the party had decided to field candidates in all the 234 assembly constituencies, he said, adding however that the party was talking to a number of other parties, including the Janata Party for an electoral tie-up. Therefore, a final list was expected to come on or after March 20 only, he said.

Radhakrishnan said the manifesto, which will give emphasis to the river water linking project, was also expected at the same time.

Referring to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi's remarks on the Varanasi bomb blasts, he claimed, "Instead of condemning it, he (Karunanidhi) is justifying the act by bringing in Ayodhya issue."

The DMK chief had on Thursday, in a poem published in party organ Murasoli condemned the Varanasi bomb blasts and criticised the BJP for seeking to derive political mileage from the incident. When asked why he was not condemning the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which had remained silent about the incident, Karunanidhi said, "Those who are not condemning the incident are themselves condemnable."