Chennai: With not much time left for the February 27 Erode East bypolls, the Congress and DMK are into extensive campaigning during the last leg.
The Congress which is representing the constituency has to win the seat at any cost as the passing away of its legislator E. Thirumahan Everaa has led to the bypoll.
Senior party leader and Thirumahan Everaa’s father, E.V.K.S. Elangovan is the Congress-DMK candidate for the seat. The AIADMK front is represented by former legislator K.S. Thennarasu.
An array of senior leaders, including TNCC president K.S.Alagiri, have been camping in the constituency to ensure victory for the Congress candidate. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Thirumahan Everaa of the Congress won the seat by a margin of 8,924 votes.
With the Makkal Neethi Maiam (MNM) of actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan extending support to the Congress, DMK candidate odds have tilted in favour of Elangovan. The MNM garnered 10,000 votes in the 2021 Assembly polls.
However, the AIADMK camp is not worried at all and Thennarasu told IANS, “In politics you can’t underestimate the voter and it is his or her choice to vote in the elections. It can be diametrically opposite to what they had chosen in the last polls and thus all these talks about lead in the last election does not matter much.”
He also said that the AIADMK front had convinced people about the false promises being given by the DMK in the last polls. The AIADMK has highlighted the failure of the DMK to abolish NEET for admission into medical colleges in the state which was a major poll promise. The DMK government has yet to provide Rs 1000 monthly pension to women below poverty line which was another poll promise.
The AIADMK front is also highlighting on the law and order failure and police highhandedness, including lockup torture and deaths.
However, the DMK-Congress front has an edge as the AIADMK is almost split in Tamil Nadu with the OPS and EPS factions not seeing each other. The Congress and DMK are also campaigning extensively on the BJP trying to take over the AIADMK after the split and the saffron party piggybacking on the AIADMK to enter in a big way in Tamil Nadu.
The strong presence of minority Muslim votes will also be casted in favour of the Congress candidate as the AIADMK is in a political alliance with the BJP.
The attack on Tamil students at JNU allegedly by ABVP activists is being taken up in a big way by the DMK. The party is campaigning that the ABVP workers had destroyed the photographs of E.V. Ramasamy Periyar, the ideologue of the Dravidian movement .
It is to be noted that Elangovan is the grandson of Periyar.
With campaigning in the last leg, the Congress and DMK are leaving no stone unturned and party cadres are meeting maximum people. More than anything else this is a must win for DMK front as this is the first polls after the DMK front has come to power in May 2021.
–IANS