Chennai: Campaign ended Friday evening for the by-elections to four Assembly by-elections in Tamil Nadu, with the Chief Electoral Officer Suprabrata Sahoo alongside DGP (Elections) Ashutosh Shukla leading a final round of discussions with the Returning Officers through video-conference regarding the arrangements for smooth conduct of polling on Sunday.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami campaigning for AIADMK candidate VP Kandasamy at Sulur.
A total of 15,939 police personnel will be deployed in the four constituencies to ensure peaceful polling, Sahoo told reporters later. He also said a total of 5,508 polling personnel will be on duty for these by-polls in Sulur, Aravakurichi, Ottapidaram and Thiruparankundram, where 137 candidates are in the fray --Aravakurichi tops with 63 aspirants.
Actor turned politician Kamal Haasan campaigns for his party candidate at Aravakurichi.
By-elections to 18 Assembly seats were held along with the polls for 38 Lok Sabha seats on April 18. The Vellore LS poll was postponed
following seizure of large amount of money from premises of DMK treasurer Durai Murugan whose son was the party candidate.
The outcome of the by-polls for the 22 Assembly seats could decide on the continuance of the two-year-old Edappadi Palaniswami government. His AIADMK now has 113 members - excluding Speaker P Dhanapal - in the house of 212 members not counting the 22 vacancies now being filled up in these by-polls. The simple majority mark in the full House of 234 is 117 and that would mean the ruling party needs to get just four seats to stay in power.
But then, things may not be as simple as that for the AIADMK because the opposition DMK is just breathing down its neck with 97 MLAs, including those of the alliance parties - Congress (8) and IUML (1).
Throughout the campaign, starting with the road shows for the April 18 polls, DMK president MK Stalin has been mostly harping on the corruption in the state government and the ‘autocratic’ attitude of the Modi regime, and the ‘opportunity’ the voters have now got -- through these elections for the Lok Sabha and the by-polls for the Assembly seats -- to ‘throw out’ the governments of Modi at the Centre and Edappadi in Tamil Nadu. He has been getting huge crowds and robust response to the anti-AIADMK/BJP rhetoric, besides handshakes and selfie requests from the younger generation - including women, a rare support segment for the DMK.
The battle score is pretty clear - if Edappadi needs four seats among these 22 gone to polls now, Stalin must win 20 to topple the AIADMK out of Fort St. George. The DMK has been insisting it is a possible target to achieve and has demonstrated its resolve by being liberal on the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to allies, including the Congress, while taking all the Assembly by-poll contests for itself.
Interestingly, Stalin’s actor-son Udayanidhi in his road shows drumming up support for the DMK candidates, has been telling his audiences they must get ready to celebrate the crowning of thalaivar (leader, his father) as the CM on June 3, the birth anniversary of Kalaignar.
Chief Minister Palaniswami, who has been getting good crowds too, lists out the various achievements of his government, which he and the other party seniors/ministers drill in whenever they get an opportunity to address campaign rallies or the media, besides insisting they are “continuing the great work of Amma, the revolutionary leader”. The CM has also been giving out promises for various constituencies - such as a government arts college during his Aravakurichi campaign.
The AIADMK campaign gist: vote to ensure the continuance of the great work of our government inspired by Amma, Narendra Modi is the best option to ensure security and all-round growth for the country and shun the DMK as its earlier regime was responsible for power-cuts that destroyed farm and factory production lines.
Challenging the two Dravidian majors, TTV Dhinakaran leading the AMMK and Kamal Haasan with his fledgling Makkal Needhi Maiam, not to forget the high-decibel Kollywood import Seeman of the Naam Tamizhar Katchi, have fielded candidates and thereby made these four contests, as well as the earlier 18 by-polls, multi-cornered.
While TTV has been labeled by the AIADMK speakers as the ‘B-team of the DMK’, his retort is that he has the best prescription for all the ailments from the Edappadi administration, while the CM himself is a ‘drohi’ (traitor) of Chinnamma (Sasikala) who gave him his position.
The TN by-poll campaign suddenly got national attention in a big way when Kamal Haasan in the last leg of the campaign trail stoked a major political row by declaring that free India’s first extremist was a Hindu and his name was Nathuram Godse.
In the hot spin-off that ensued, the BJP central leadership issued show cause notices to three of its MP candidates who spoke in support of Godse, almost justifying his murder of the Mahatma. This part of the war could go on for some time, even after the dust and heat of the elections settle down.
