Chennai: Caught in a Catch-22 situation on contesting the bye-election to the Erode East Assembly Constituency, O Panneerselvam, heading a faction of the AIADMK, announced an election committee, headed by former Minister R Vaithilingam, comprising 118 members as a counter to the 117-member panel formed by the rival group of Edappadi K Palaniswami that is keen to take on the ruling coalition’s candidate, E V K Elangovan.
The acolytes of Panneerselvam, who fear that their group might go into oblivion if the rival faction keenly contests the bye-election and establishes itself as the ‘real AIADMK,’ a status over which the dispute is now before the Supreme Court, are also not in a position to identify and field a candidate from their group to give a fight to Elangovan and also the rival AIADMK candidate.
A prominent leader of the faction JCD Prabakar told the media on Saturday that they were waiting for the BJP’s decision on the bye-election. He said that since the declared rival candidate was from the Congress, a national party, it would be only appropriate for the BJP to field its nominee against him, which was a clear indication of the group’s lack of interest in fighting the bye-election.
However, since the Palaniswami group formed a 117-member poll panel and started the work even before nominating the candidate and ascertaining what their election symbol will be – they are prepared to contest even if the traditional ‘Two Leaves’ is frozen or given to the rivals – Panneerselvam was prepared to watch them run roughshod over his faction, which could lead to their decimation in the political arena.
So Panneerselvam held a meeting with his supporters like Vaithilingam, P H Manoj Pandian and Prabakaran and also lawyers at his residence in Chennai to discuss the election strategy and also the measures to be taken to get the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol for them from the Election Commission of India and countering the claims of the rival faction in the Supreme Court.
A lawyer, who was accosted by waiting media persons, said that they would file a petition in the Supreme Court as Panneerselvam, as coordinator of the party, should be entitled for the ‘Two Leaves’ and that the ECI should only decide in his favour.
Though the OPS faction would like the BJP to fight the Congress in the bye-election and it could hide behind it, the State BJP does not seem to have interest in facing the polls now and might even support the EPS group that is yet to name the candidate despite having zeroed in a two or three leaders with clout in Erode East constituency.
BJP State President will be meeting his district presidents in a couple of days to finalise the strategy to be adopted vis-à-vis the bye-elections and whom to support while there are no indications of the party entering the fray now.
The EPS group, however, is upbeat over the possibility of winning the seat as it sees a resentment among the people over the DMK government performance in the last one and a half years. Echoing that sentiment, K A Sengottaiyan, who leads the 117-member panel, said that Erode East would be for Palaniswami what was Dindigul Lok Sabha seat for AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran in 1973.
He was referring to K Maya Thevar, the candidate of the then newly formed AIADMK romping home in the bye-election to the Dindigul constituency, paving the way for the party’s domination in the State's political scene subsequently.
Sengottaiyan told the media that as of now the party was contesting the bye-election on its own but in the next two or three days more parties would be joining hands with it. Also he said that 98.5 per cent of the AIADMK cadre were solidly with them.
In the other camp, the candidate Elangovan indicated that he would be filing his nomination papers on February 3, while the DMK has launched its campaign with Ministers like S Muthusamy and S M Nasar meeting voters at their homes, besides holding a meeting with the campaigners.
Elangovan’s younger son, Sanjay Sampath, was accompanying the DMK leaders who had started their campaign without waiting for the Congress top brass to take charge of the constituency, thus putting the campaign machinery in work much ahead of any other rival.
