Campaign Yet to Pick Up Momentum

Chennai: Campaign for the April 19 elections to the Lok Sabha is yet to pick up momentum though most of the candidates have been finalized for all the 39 constituencies in the State, barring the nine seats that have been allotted to the Congress by the DMK-led alliance, as the candidates and the local party units were involved in preliminary work.

Almost all the candidates were meeting up with local office-bearers of the alliance partners and their own party seniors in the constituency to formally invite them for the campaign that will start with full gusto once the nominations are filed in the next few days.

Political parties, too, were making the last minute changes in the candidate list and the AIADMK replaced its nominee for the Thoothukudi constituency, Shimla Muthuchozhan, with a local leader, M Jhansi Rani, who is the town panchayat president of Tisaiyanvilai.

Shimla Muthuchozhan, who hails from a traditional DMK family, had joined the AIADMK just about three weeks ahead of his nomination for the Thoothukudi seat. Whether she was changed because the party felt the need to field a local candidate against DMK’s Kanimozhi Karunanidhi or did not want to nominate her because she has the reputation of being J Jayalalithaa’s opponent in Kolathur Assembly seat once.

The TMC, which is an ally of the BJP, announced the Thoothukudi South district president S D R Vijayseelan as its candidate for Thoothukudi constituency to face the two women opponents of the DMK and AIADMK.

AMMK founder T T V Dhinakaran is now contesting from Theni constituency as announced by AIADMK splinter group leader O Panneerselvam, who is fighting the election from Ramanathapuram in an independent symbol. He does not want to contest in the BJP’s ‘Lotus’ or the AMMK’s ‘Pressure Cooker’ because he is still making a claim to the leadership of the AIADMK in the court.

The chosen candidates have also started the process of setting up the election offices within the constituency by renting premises and appointing office staff. Once the nominations are filed, probably on Monday, the campaign work will start.

Star campaigners of the party have already announced their tour plans. DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin had already started his tour and was in Thanjavur, meeting several groups of people, besides addressing meetings.

The DMK also announced the whirlwind tour programme of its star campaigner and State Minister Udhaynidhi Stalin from Saturday. Udhaynidhi Stalin will be delivering back-to-back campaign speeches till Wednesday covering several places like Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Kanchipuram, Aarani, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore and Arakkonam.