Chennai: The death of MDMK leader and sitting MP from Erode Lok Sabha constituency, Ganeshamurthy on Thursday, due to a cardiac arrest after an alleged suicide attempt, has put the INDIA bloc on the back foot in Tamil Nadu.
The 76-year-old veteran MP passed away on Thursday morning in a Coimbatore hospital.
According to Ganeshamurthy’s family members, the leader had allegedly consumed an insecticide on March 24.
They alleged that this was a suicide attempt by the veteran leader after he was denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha poll from his Erode seat.
It may be recalled that the MDMK swapped the Erode seat with the Tiruchi seat of the DMK.
The MDMK took over the Tiruchi seat for Durai Vaiko, the son of party founder leader Vaiko, to contest.
While Vaiko told media persons that he had consulted Ganeshamurthy twice on the issue, sources in MDMK told IANS that the decision was taken unilaterally by Vaiko without any consultations in the party.
Ganeshamurthy’s death has created problems for the DMK, MDMK and the INDIA bloc as they would have to face allegations by rival parties on the issue during electioneering.
M Subramanian, a businessman and voter of Erode constituency told IANS, “Ganeshamurthy was a simple politician who used to interact with everyone. The father-son duo of Vaiko and Durai Vaiko cannot wash off the sin of the death of our sitting MP. People know clearly that he died due to the suicide attempt and the reason that led to him attempting suicide.”
While the main Opposition party AIADMK and the BJP have not publicly leveled allegations yet, it is certain that in the days to come this will be a hot subject.
A senior AIADMK leader told IANS on condition of anonymity, “The DMK and its allies have turned into family parties and no democracy exists in such parties. The death of sitting MP Ganeshamurthy is a serious matter and a proper answer from the DMK and MDMK is expected.
“In the entire western and northern belts of Tamil Nadu this death will have ramifications and the INDIA bloc would have to answer.”
Sarangapani, another voter in Erode constituency and a DMK supporter told IANS, “This was cruel. Ganeshamurthy was a good MP and approachable and was in the forefront of all activities in Erode. He was actually killed by his party MDMK by denying him a ticket. I came to know from my contacts in Tiruchi that DMK local leaders and workers are sad and at the same time angry with Vaiko and his son over this.”
Ganeshamurthy, it may be recalled, won the Erode Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 210,618 votes in 2009, defeating his nearest opponent G.Manimaran of the AIADMK.
C Rajeev, Director, Centre for Policy and Development Studies, a think tank based out of Chennai told IANS, “This is really sad. It may be recalled that Vaiko, who was a senior leader of the DMK, had come out of that party and floated his own party MDMK after raking allegations of dynastic politics in the DMK when the present Chief Minister, MK Stalin was brought into the mainstream by Karunanidhi. Now the same Vaiko has brought up his son to contest a Lok Sabha seat thereby resulting in the alleged suicide attempt and subsequent death of Ganeshamurthy who was expecting a re-election.”
He added that the INDIA bloc will have a lot of answering to do on this before the public and added that the damage has already been done for the front in Tamil Nadu.
–IANS
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