Despite a lowkey campaign, which is very unusual, the ruling DMK is eyeing for a landslide in the February 5 bypoll for the Erode East Assembly constituency.
With the principal opposition AIADMK as well as the BJP and their allies sitting out, the onus of taking on the DMK juggernaut is on the Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) of filmmaker-turned neta Seeman, which has carried out a spirited campaign.
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Though there are 46 candidates in the fray, the fight is primarily between VC Chandirakumar of the DMK and MK Seethalakshmi of the NTK. This time around, the ‘dead rubber’ contest would show how many votes the NTK could garner since it is waging a lonely battle with a virulent anti-Dravidian narrative by debunking Dravidian icon ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy.
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Unlike in the past, it was not a high decibel election which marks byelections in the state since the 90s. Neither Chief Minister and party president MK Stalin nor his son and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi have hit the campaign trail.
Except local minister S Muthusamy, also the party district secretary, other DMK ministers have stayed away leaving him to get the result. Kanimozhi, MP, was the only top leader who made an appearance to canvass votes for the party candidate.
It was in stark contrast to the previous byelection in the constituency in 2023, when the entire Stalin cabinet and leaders of alliance parties had descended on the constituency, camping there for weeks together, though the candidate then was from the Congress, EVKS Elangovan, a former Union Minister.
There were allegations of the ruling DMK keeping the voters in shelters, entertaining them with movies and providing food and snacks. That was the reason for the AIADMK and the BJP opting out this time. Riding on the DMK’s shoulders, the Congress romped home with a huge margin.
Similar was the case in the July 2024 Vikravandi bypoll, which the DMK had won handsomely. In the 2011 election, VC Chandirakumar, contesting on the DMDK ticket in alliance with the AIADMK, had defeated the DMK candidate S Muthusamy.
But, in 2016, he switched to the DMK and lost to the AIADMK candidate. The DMK allotted the seat to the Congress in 2021 and Thirumagan Evera won from there.
However, following his death in January 2023, his father, EVKS Elangovan, was elected in the bypoll held in February that year. This bypoll is necessitated due to his death.
Of interest to analysts is the narrative set by NTK Chief Coordinator Seeman by pitching slain LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran against Periyar as the icon of Tamils.
Though the DMK and its ideological mentor Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) have refrained from countering Seeman, it has rattled the Dravidian establishment since Periyar has been accorded a pre-eminent status in the Daravidian pantheon. Interestingly, Erode is the birthplace of Periyar and it remains to be seen whether his attack on the late rationalist iconoclast helps the NTK improve its vote share from the previous 8 percent.
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