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Journalism of Courage
With Tamil Nadu set to vote on April 18, both the DMK and the AIADMK have finally firmed up their alliances. But this is the state’s first post-Karunanidhi, post-Jayalalithaa election and, on the ground, both the Dravidian majors face not only a credibility deficit but also have no specific agenda.
While the AIADMK, which has never quite recovered from Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016, is now fighting for its survival, the DMK under M K Stalin, who finally took over the party after M Karunanidhi’s death in August 2018, has entered this election with the single agenda of keeping the BJP out.
This is unlike in the past when Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa took alliance decisions — they offered clear, definite justifications for why they had allied with a particular party and why the alliance partner would be fielded in a particular seat.
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But this time, there is none of that clarity. Though the two parties sought to form “mega alliances” this Lok Sabha polls, many of these were hastily stitched. Forced to share constituencies with multiple allies, the DMK and AIADMK both seem to have got their calculations wrong in several seats.
Consider these:
* The AIADMK-NDA alliance has given Dindigul in the south to the PMK, a party with a presence among the OBC Vanniyars in the north. In the 2016 Assembly elections, the PMK had got only 7,600 votes in the six Assembly segments falling under the seat.
Headed by S Ramadoss and son Anbumani, the PMK has been given seven seats in the AIADMK-NDA alliance. Another one of those seats, Central Chennai, again without much Vanniyar presence, also looks a hard climb for the alliance. While heavyweight Dayanidhi Maran is the DMK candidate from this seat, the PMK has fielded Sam Paul, the businessman behind Toni & Guy outlets in the city, and a political greenhorn.
* AIADMK leaders are also worried about the four seats given to Captain Vijayakanth’s DMDK in the alliance. Though the DMDK’s traditional strongholds are Salem, Tirupur and northern Tamil Nadu, the party hasn’t been allotted any constituencies there.
One of the seats it has got is North Chennai, from where the DMDK is fielding an outsider against the DMK’s formidable Kalanidhi Veerasamy, son of former minister Arcot Veerasamy. While Vijayakanth’s powerful brother-in-law L K Sudheesh is contesting from Kallakurichi, the DMK candidate against him is another heavyweight, D Gowtham Sigamani, the son of senior DMK leader K Ponmudy.
* The BJP too may not have an easy time, despite having wrangled five seats in the alliance with the AIADMK. Its state president Tamilisai Soundararajan is contesting against DMK first family member Kanimozhi from Thoothukudi. While both hope to get the Nadar community vote, Kanimozhi is a step ahead, having nurtured the constituency from where she will be making her electoral debut.
* The BJP is shaky in Ramanathapuram constituency too, from where it has fielded Nainar Nagendran. “While Nagendran is an outsider, T T V Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) has fielded a native, V D N Anand (the son of a former AIADMK minister),” said a senior AIADMK leader, adding that given the seat’s Thevar votes, they should have had a native Thevar candidate.
* The DMK-Congress front, which is much bigger with Left and Dalit parties in it, is not without its share of problems. Eyebrows have been raised over influential Congress leader and ex-MP J M Aaroon Rashid announcing his withdrawal from Theni citing health reasons. His son too is said to have refused. The AIADMK candidate is O P Raveendranath, the son of Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. “Rashid’s son studied with Raveendranath,” a senior Congress leader explained.
The Congress has been forced to field former state party chief E V K S Elangovan, but as a senior DMK leader says, “Elangovan has no stake in Theni.” Elangovan admitted Theni wasn’t his choice. “I demanded two other constituencies from where I was sure of winning. But since those seats went to allies, the party asked me to take this,” he said.
* DMK chief Stalin is also being criticised for leaving Coimbatore to the CPM. While the seat is an old bastion of the Leftist party, its vote share in Coimbatore now remains a question.
* In Sivaganga, an indecisive Congress leadership announced the candidature of Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P Chidambaram. Not only is Karti facing corruption allegations, he is up against controversial BJP leader and national secretary H Raja, who started his campaign long ago.
