TN: Politicos unsettled as MLA falls sick

CHENNAI: DMK MLA J Anbazhagan testing positive for Covid last week was a wake-up call for many politicians. He was freely mingling with people in his desire to fulfill party president MK Stalin's directive to distribute relief measures to as many needy people as possible.
With the ruling AIADMK ensuring all relief measures is distributed through state ministers, party leaders and government machinery, the principal opposition party had to be seen doing its best too. It is an election year, after all.
To be fair, Stalin was repeatedly cautioning leaders participating in such exercises to take all necessary precautions. But in the heat of ensuring delivery, caution gets thrown to the wind as people thrust themselves closer to grab their share of the spoils.
"There is definitely a sense of unease after Anbazhagan tested positive. While we have been ensuring that social distancing is maintained from the beginning, we have become doubly cautious now," a DMK Lok Sabha MP, who did not want to be named, told TOI.
On Sunday, DMK MP from Tuticorin Kanimozhi participated in events to distribute relief measures in her constituency. "When people need our support, we cannot sit back. Even today I distributed relief measures to 500 people. But I am taking additional precautions," said DMK MLA from Saidapet M Subramanian.
The scenario with DMK's ally Congress too is no different, especially after at least three senior partymen, including spokesman Americai V Narayanan, state general secretary Keezhanur Rajendran and Pon Krishnamurthi, tested positive. "While participating in the event to observe former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's death anniversary, they forgot to maintain social distancing," a Congress insider said. "Even while standing with the families of those affected and wishing the affected leaders a speedy recovery, we have to continue our efforts to be in the forefront to distribute relief measures to people during such a crisis," AICC secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Sanjay Dutt said. "If social distancing is maintained, these problems will not arise. On Tuesday, I will be participating in an event to distribute relief measures to people at Walajapet (Ranipet district). Some advised me against it. I will participate, but will ensure that social distance is maintained," TNCC president K S Alagiri said.
Even the ruling party has been keen to ensure that social distancing is maintained, despite the recent embarrassing incident when senior minister D Jayakumar had to abandon a relief measure distribution function as people jostled for space. "Everything can be streamlined when utmost caution is adopted. Our chief minister has been repeatedly telling us that every single life is important and hence the need to ensure social distancing," said Aspire K Swaminathan, AIADMK's Chennai zone IT wing secretary.