DMK voters caught in a pincer ahead of elections
Their party president M. Karunanidhi announced boycott of the mayoral polls
By : pramila krishnan
Update: 2014-09-15 06:06 GMT
Coimbatore: It's a Catch 22 situation for hardcore DMK loyalists. Since their party president M. Karunanidhi announced boycott of the mayoral polls, they would have to forgo all the excitement of participating in this high-voltage poll battle or ‘quietly’ choose between the candidates of archrival AIADMK and the 'untouchable' saffron party. BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan has appealed to the DMK and Congress supporters to vote for her party nominee instead of wasting their franchise.
"DMK supporters will certainly obey the diktat of our Thalaivar. We had secured more than 1.50 lakh votes in the last mayoral election. We will all stay away this time," said DMK's former deputy mayor of Coimbatore corporation N. Karthik.
He added, "This mayoral election has been announced in a hasty manner, which only showed the insecurity of the AIADMK." When asked about the BJP state chief's request to support her candidate, he shot back, "No, that's not possible. We will obey our party leadership and boycott this election being conducted in an undemocratic manner."
The 'commoner' DMK loyalists do not seem to be on Karthik's side on this boycott issue. "Most of us will vote for the Marxist candidate Padmanabhan instead of staying away from the election. We are doing this to reduce the margin of victory for the AIADMK and not because we have any great love for the Communists," said a DMK paguthi seyalalar (area secretary), requesting anonymity. He said his party cadres "are very upset seeing so many ministers campaigning in Coimbatore".
But then, state minister S.P. Velumani, in-charge of the AIADMK campaign in Coimbatore, is confident of party nominee P. Rajkumar sweeping the September 18 poll. "We know the people's pulse. In all our interaction with the voters here, we found overwhelming support because our CM Amma has announced schemes and projects worth '2,378 crore so far in this term," said the minister.
Refusing to speculate which way the DMK votes would go, Mr Velumani said, "Suffice it to say that the BJP will lose deposit."