Parties gear up for 70-day gruelling poll work

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly elections scheduled for May 16 gives good time for  DMK, BJP and other opposition parties to finalise their alliances and seat arrangements, while the AIADMK government which could not make any announcements for the next 72 days will have to ensure  there are no power outages during  summer.

The alliance situation in Tamil Nadu still remains fluid with Vijayakanth’s DMDK delaying a decision and both DMK and BJP not finalising their alliances. The DMK is going through the process of selecting candidates through interviews for the last 10 days and it will be completed this week.

The party will have to finalise the alliance partners,  the number of seats for each of the constituents and go for identification of seats for each party which could be a tough process. The BJP too is undecided about its alliance plans and it will have more time to finalise seat sharing in case of finding allies.

The AIADMK government, which was announcing a series of schemes for the last few weeks,  will have to sustain the goodwill of its welfare schemes and latest announcements for the next two and half months.

Besides, power demand is certain to peak during April and May. The party will have to ensure that there are no power outages during the poll campaign as the Opposition will be ready to seize the opportunity.

Besides, price rise in summer will be another cause of concern for the ruling party. People’s Welfare Alliance leaders who rely on the older method of street meetings and road shows to convey their views will have ample time to plan and travel throughout the state.

The PMK which is the first party to start the poll campaign in February last year will have to sustain the tempo for another 70 days as the campaign ends only on May 14. The party is yet to announce its candidates despite an early start.

Film director Seeman’s Naam Thamizhar party is the only outfit to have announced candidates for all the 234 constituencies and started its campaign.
West Bengal and Assam has a shorter time between poll date and the announcement.

In Tamil Nadu too, the period between the date of election announcement and the polling date is lesser by nearly a month.