Within hours of the announcement made by the Election Commission that the RK Nagar Assembly constituency bypoll would be held on December 21, officials and the major players got into action for the most exciting election to be held in Tamil Nadu.
MK Stalin, the de facto chief of the DMK (in the absence of his ailing papa M Karunanidhi) announced on Saturday that Maruthu Ganesh would be his party’s candidate for the bypoll. Ganesh was the party’s candidate for the April 2017 by-election from RK Nagar which was rescinded by the EC following reports of large scale money distribution by then AIADMK (Amma) candidate TTV Dinakaran and his associates.
The DMK candidate’s prospects were brightened as the VCK, a Dalit outfit with considerable clout in the constituency declaring that it would extend support to him in the December 21 election. “This is an election which has assumed national importance and we want to make this a prelude to the fight against the communal politics of the BJP,” Thol.Thirumavalavan, VCK president, said at Chennai.
The Congress too declared that it would support the DMK candidate. TNCC president S Thirunavakarassar requested all like-minded parties to extend support to the DMK candidate.
The Left parties are expected to support the DMK candidate in what is being termed as a curtain raiser to the formation of a Rainbow alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Late Friday night, Dinakaran declared at Tirupur that he himself would be the candidate of the faction headed by his aunt VK Sasikala. “I’ll win the RK Nagar election and then retrieve the Two Leaves symbol and the name of the party,” he said, indicating that the battle for the Two Leaves symbol would continue in the Supreme Court.
But it was not a pleasant Saturday for the AIADMK as fissures within the party came out in the open. Aspire Swaminathan, the IT wing chief of the O Panneerselvam faction posted a social media message that his faction was upset over the treatment meted out to OPS by the Edappadi Palniswamy function during victory celebrations at Madurai following the ECI verdict allotting the Two Leaves emblem to the party.