Chennai: The July 10 by-election to the Vikravandi Assembly constituency has now taken a curious political turn with the chief coordinator of the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), Seeman, who has fielded a candidate, openly seeking out to other parties not in the fray for support though the main contest is expected to be between the DMK’s Anniyur A Siva and PMK’s C Anbumani..
The speech of Seeman, humbly requesting the AIADMK and the DMDK leaders and cadre to extend their support for the NTK candidate, Abinaya, went viral with social media mocking at him for procrastinating before other parties keeping aside his quintessential bravado of going it alone in polls, come what may.
Since the AIADMK is boycotting the elections, Seeman wants that party cadre to support him. Similarly he would like the supporters of DMDK to vote for his party now since they do not have a candidate of their own alliance in the fray.
Seeman’s contention that the DMK was their common enemy also led to many tongues wagging in the political arena as he had consistently been fielding candidates in all the constituencies in all the elections since 2016, never aligning with any other major party, but fighting it alone despite never tasting a single victory.
The manner in which Seeman was kowtowing to the potential supporters in Vikravandi by saying that he had backed both the AIADMK and DMDK in the past and had even campaigned hard for DMDK founder Vijaykanth, also made him a subject of ridicule in social media where YouTube channel anchors recalling that the NTK chief, professing Tamil nationalism and claiming that he was trained by LTTE chief V Prabakaran in warfare, always expressing his aversion to other mainstream parties till now.
Though neither the AIADMK leaders nor the DMDK top brass had responded to Seeman’s request, the election scene in Vikravandi constituency in Villupuram district has become active with the DMK leaving no stone unturned to regain the seat that fell vacant following the death of its member N Pugazhenthi in April at the height of the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls.
Since the constituency falls under the Vanniayar belt, the PMK wanted to give it a try and spoke to its main ally, the BJP about it. Even the BJP willingly agreed to accede the seat to the PMK that fielded C Anbumani and started campaign quite early with even party president showing keen interest in ensuring his victory.
But Seeman, who normally goes about his campaigns in a cavalier manner, now feels that his party could win the by-election if the parties opposed to the DMK could join hands and support him. As it would not be possible to appeal to the BJP that is an ally of the PMK for support, it has left that party out and sought out the AIADMK and its ally.
Even in the selection of the candidate for Vikravandi, he had abandoned Sheeba Asmi, who polled 8,216 votes in 2021, and gone for Abinaya, who was his party’s contestant from Dharmapuri seat, pitted against PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss wife, Sowmiya Anbumani, in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
With Seeman’s solicitation of support from the AIADMK and DMDK going viral on social media there is a clear possibility of voters in Vikravandi watching it. So even if party honchos refrain from responding to the call, which actually is to defeat the DMK by joining hands with him, one would not know how the cadre and workers at the grassroots would view it. For, the AIADMK and DMDK have not yet told their voters whom they could alternatively support in the by-election.
