Tamil Nadu: By-election Campaigns Intensify in Vikravandi Assembly Constituency

Chennai: As campaigning for the July 10 by-elections to the Vikravandi Assembly constituency picked up momentum with a slew of State Ministers descending there to seek votes for DMK candidate Anniyur Siva who is in a direct fight with PMK’s C Anbumani and Naam Tamilar Katchi’s Abinaya, the big question that loomed over the electoral arena was: Whom will AIADMK supporters vote for?

While the conclusion of the Assembly session on June 29 started bringing the Ministers, who called on voters at homes, workplaces, roads and public spaces in the constituency, PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss has been camping there trying to woo AIADMK supporters, invoking the anti-DMK sentiment in them.

Describing the DMK as their common enemy, the PMK campaigners have been urging people to vote for Anbumani as that alone would help achieve the common goal of defeating the DMK. In fact, it was NTK chief coordinator Seeman who first appealed to the AIADMK and DMDK supporters to back their candidate Abinaya since their parties were boycotting the election.

Seeman made that fervent request to consider the by-election as a special occasion and vote for the NTK by recalling past elections in which he had been a loyal ally of the AIADMK and had also worked for the DMDK founder Vijaykanth. However, that gave enough grist to the troll armies to churn out memes and jokes and not much food for thought for the AIADMK and DMDK supporters who had been asked to keep off the polls.

So, it is learnt that Anbumani Ramadoss adopted the same ‘common enemy’ ruse of Seeman to his convenience and started canvassing votes for the PMK. But when senior AIADMK leader D Jayakumar was asked in Chennai if the AIADMK cadre would swing towards the PMK in the by-election, he said his party workers would only boycott the elections.

To counter the PMK campaign, DMK workers, with senior Ministers K N Nehru and E V Velu at the helm of the propaganda brigade, have started telling the people that the PMK was an ally of the BJP that had to be kept away from the State. So to keep the BJP at bay, they should vote for the DMK candidate, they have been going around telling the voters.

Several other Ministers and DMK MLAs have started joining the local campaigners in seeking support for their party. On Tuesday those who visited the constituency were Ministers Duraimurugan, K Ponmudi, P K Sekarbabu, C V Ganesan, MP S Jagathrakshan and MLAs Thayagam Kavi and Joseph Samuel.

TNCC president K Selvaperunthogai will be on a whirlwind tour of the constituency on Wednesday by addressing meetings at Ariyur, Venkanthur, Valliapattu and Sithamur. In the one week left for the polls, more top DMK leaders like Chief Minister M K Stalin and Minister Udhaynidhi Stalin are expected to visit Vikravandi, which has now become a prestigious seat for the ruling party.

For one, it was the death of DMK’s sitting member N Pugazhenthi that caused the election. Then as the ruling party, the DMK cannot afford to lose a by-election, coming close on the heels of the Lok Sabha polls in which it managed to make a clean sweep winning all the 40 seats in the State and neighbouring Pudhucherry.

Above all the DMK has to prove to the rest of the State that the people have not lost confidence in its government after the region was rocked by the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy that claimed 63 lives.