Campaigning in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry for tomorrow’s assembly elections ended yesterday with rival fronts and other political parties making a last-minute effort to woo voters.
While Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa flew to different districts to address election rallies, her main rival, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M Karunanidhi travelled by road/train to appeal to the voters for their party candidates as well as that of their allies.
Electioneering began more than a month back in Tamil Nadu that is witnessing a multi-cornered contest this time.
In the fray are 3,785 candidates that include 3,453 men, 320 women and two of the third gender. The total number of polling stations is over 65,600.
Jayalalithaa’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is going to the polls aligning with a couple of smaller outfits, fielding its candidates in 227 seats while the balance have been given to its allies.
This is the first time in the party’s history that the AIADMK is contesting in more than 200 seats.
Though the allies have been given only seven seats, they will contest under AIADMK’s “two leaves” symbol. Thus, for the first time, the AIADMK symbol will be seen in all the 234 constituencies.
The DMK has aligned with the Congress, two Muslim parties and some smaller outfits.
The third front led by the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (symbol drum) comprises the Communist Party of India (Marxist - hammer, sickle and star), the Communist Party of India (ear of corn and sickle), VCK (ring), TMC (coconut trees) and MDMK (top) under its fold.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leads another front with smaller outfits while Naam Thamizhar Katchi is also contesting 234 seats under ‘two burning candles’ symbol.
The PMK that started its campaign much ahead of others on the theme “change and progress” projecting former union minister Anbumani Ramadoss as the chief ministerial candidate is also going it alone.
In Kerala, the ruling Congress Party-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the CPM is pitted against each other in what is seen as a close fight.
The emergence of the BJP and its allies, especially Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) of predominantly the Hindu Ezhava community, as a strong third force, however, makes the outcome unpredictable.
Some even forecast a hung assembly with the rival fronts failing to cross the 70 mark in the 140-member legislature with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which pocketed 13.21% votes in the last year’s civic polls, winning two to five seats.
The BJP had come first in at least four assembly segments (Thiruvananthapuram, Kazhakkoottam, Vattiyoorkavu and Nemam) and second in two (Manjeshwar and Kasaragod) in the 2014 parliamentary elections in a close fight with the UDF.
Besides these six, they expect to win Kuttanad where BDJS’s Subhash Vasu is engaged in a three-cornered fight with Kuwait-based expatriate Thomas Chandy (LDF), the incumbent, and Jacob Abraham (UDF).
“The wind is blowing in a different direction this time,” BJP president Amit Shah told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday.
“Kerala is facing stagnation in development. The state will see what the development is when the BJP comes to power. It will not be the same after May 16.”
Expecting to end its electoral drought, this time, the BJP had fielded all its star campaigners, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and close to a dozen ministers under him, virtually launching a blitzkrieg across the state.
The campaigning also saw Modi sniping at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin and comparing Kerala’s infant mortality rate among tribals to Somalia.
The Somalia remarks also invited trolls on the social media and the LDF and UDF joining hands to attack Modi for questioning pride of the state, which boasts of the quality of life indices comparable to developed nations despite low income.
“The principal contest is between the UDF and the LDF in Kerala,” Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told reporters in Kottayam. “In some constituencies, it’s between the UDF and the BJP. But the real fight is between us and the LDF.”
Chandy, 72, is contesting from his home constituency of Puthuppally, where he had not lost any election since 1970.
In Puducherry though there are several parties in the fray, the main contest is between the Congress-DMK combine and the ruling AINRC.
In 2011, AINRC teamed up with AIADMK. But after the elections, AINRC ditched AIADMK and did not share power with it.