He was missing in action after boycotting the assembly elections. Vaiko, who founded the MDMK after walking out of the DMK, had opted out because he felt that his alliance partner for the last few elections, AIADMK, was not fair to his party during seat-sharing talks. Now he is making up for lost time and his furious campaign has energized his cadre.
Vaiko hopes that his ongoing battle to get the death sentence of Rajiv Gandhi killers — Perarivalavan, Santhan and Murugan — commuted to life will resonate with the voters. During his campaign, he is also distributing handwritten letters outlining the MDMK’s contribution in protecting Tamil interests for the last 18 years — his protests on attacks on fishermen by the Sri Lankan defence forces, his campaign to interlink rivers, his protest against the divesting of Neyyvelli Lignite Corporation, etc. The fact that all parties will go alone is going to help the MDMK, he feels. As a leader said, “We may not win a sizeable number of seats, but a decent vote percentage will help us strategise for the future.”
How Well Do You Know Your Candidate?
The interface in these local polls between a candidate and a voter is more up close and personal than in assembly and parliamentary polls. And this time candidates will have new areas to cover since the delimitation.
The mayoral candidate for Chennai will literally have a humongous problem. Since the last election, this metropolis has become a megalopolis — expanded from 175 sq kms to 424 sq kms. Most wards that fall in the heart of the city have seen about 20,000 voters added. In other words, wards have grown from 15,000-20,000 to 30,000-35,000 voters. Mayor Subramaniam, the incumbent who is trying his luck again, confesses, “I don’t know how to reach all the 44 lakh voters. I plan to stay overnight in distant places so I can cover all the 200 wards.”
In the intense battle for Chennai, there are 32 mayoral candidates in the fray including Saidai Duraiswami (AIADMK), Saidai Ravi (Congress), G. Velmurugan (DMDK) and A. K. Moorthy (PMK). But this is going to be a contest mostly between the incumbent mayor and AIADMK’s Duraiswamy. The latter has a point to prove after losing narrowly to Stalin in the assembly elections. In fact, so narrowly that Duraiswami has gone to court to contest Stalin’s victory.
Duraiswami is hoping that his popularity through his Manida Neyam Trust that coaches IAS aspirants will see him through. In fact he is already a hit on Facebook with some even calling him a future mayor of Chennai. One wall writing on his Facebook page says, “Impeccable is the word to describe Saidai Duraiswami. With huge potential comes greater responsibility and people have confidence that he will make Chennai the best city in the world.” And he has 821 friends. Subramaniam has 519 friends. The shape of things to come?
The Doosra