Chennai: Amid all the cacophony of who’ll be the king and who’ll end up as mere kingmakers, PMK leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss insists his chances of emerging as the Chief Minister in the coming Assembly election are brighter than those of any other contender.
“Fifty years is a long time for people to put up with corruption, maladministration and many other evils of DMK and AIADMK. People are fed up, tired and angry with both of them. People in Delhi boycotted both the Congress and the BJP, and chose Kejriwal; likewise in Tamil Nadu, both the DMK and the AIADMK will be rejected and people will support me” the former Union health minister said during a freewheeling chat at his house in T’Nagar.
Elaborating, he said he had toured his Dharmapuri constituency for 117 days after he was sworn in MP in May 2014 in one year till May 2015. “The name of Anbumani as a hardworking youngster who talks sense, who is concerned about the development of the state and its people, as a professional (doctor) has stuck in everybody’s mind. I am banking on the youngsters and women who are craving for change.”
“Sixty per cent of the 5.79 crore voters in the state, are neutral voters and two-thirds of them are youth. That’s about 2.5 crore young voters. And 90 per cent of them do not want to vote for either DMK or AIADMK. I am banking on them. I am convinced they like my campaigns against tobacco and liquor and my clear plans to improve the education system and increase employment. And I am convinced most of them hate this politics of freebies (practised by both the Dravidian majors)”, said Dr Anbumani looking pretty sure of himself.
According to him, DMK leader M K Stalin’s Namakku-Namey statewide tour was “just a farce” enacted by engaging party cadres. “They were tutored what to ask and Stalin was tutored what to answer. If the actual public was there, nobody asked him about 2G scam, about DMK government introducing liquor 45 years back and the many corruption cases against DMK ministers. “That tour did good for Stalin within his party, made sure he outshone his siblings. It did no good for his party”.
As for AIADMK, people are upset over the government’s “non-performance and corruption”. Besides, the TN voters are known to reject the ruling party — only MGR had been an exception. Vijayakanth’s popularity would prove to be a ‘mirage’ “He had nine per cent vote share seven years back but now it’s come down to less than four per cent, he said.
The People’s Welfare Alliance (PWA) of VCK, Left and MDMK, would end up as a poll disaster “with or without further additions” and all this led him to strongly believe he would emerge the winner at the polls, he added. “My confidence level is growing each day. I receive feedback from my party workers from across the state all the time. They say we are gaining”.
Feedback from all over the state? Does PMK have such significant presence in places other than its traditional Vanniyar caste strongholds in north-west parts of Tamil Nadu?
Dr Anbumani insisted that DMK and AIADMK have slapped the ‘Vanniyar-only’ tag on his party only because the PMK announced it would have no truck with either of them. “In 2011, we decided enough is enough; we will not go with either of those parties. We even apologised to the people for aligning with them in the past.
The day we began opposing them, they started saying we are a caste party and we are against Dalits. No other party here has a dalit as its general secretary; we do. Dalit Ezhilmalai was our first representative in the Union cabinet and the next time, it was another dalit, E Ponnusamy. I fought many obstacles to get reservation for dalits in the all-India medical entrance exams for both MBBS
and PG courses. More than 4,000 dalit students benefit every year. As minister, I fought against discrimination of dalits at the AIIMS in Delhi…I am pretty confident that in three years, 40 per cent of the dalit population in Tamil Nadu will back me.”
