Tamil Nadu: No Amma, no Kalaignar. It’s EPS vs Stalin | India News – Times of India
CHENNAI: The stage is ready in Tamil Nadu for a do-or-die battle between AIADMK member and outgoing CM Edappadi Okay Palaniswami (higher often called EPS) and DMK president M Okay Stalin.
For the primary two years of his tenure, it was life on tenterhooks for EPS as AMMK functionary T T V Dhinakaran unleashed sustained assaults, pulling the rug from underneath the chief minister’s ft by wooing AIADMK MLAs.
Stalin’s determination to attend until the EPS authorities crumbled underneath its personal weight aided the CM by good measure. Finally, it took a mini basic election to the meeting in 2019 for him to stabilise his authorities.
EPS, since then, has graduated within the artwork of managing political brinkmanship. With a slew of populist schemes — like doling out money to folks in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, granting Rs 1,715-crore compensation for farmers affected by pure calamities, and a farm mortgage waiver of Rs 12,110 crore — EPS has earned some pan-Tamil Nadu acceptance of late.
He has sought to appease the federal government staff and lecturers, numbering greater than 12 lakh, by extending their retirement age to 60. And lastly, to appease ally PMK, he introduced an inside reservation of 10.5% for Vanniyars. The AIADMK entrance is all set to place up a troublesome struggle with the DMK entrance. The DMK entrance, alternatively, is a formidable pressure and has confirmed its energy by profitable 38 out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats within the 2019 elections.
None of the allies, be it Congress, CPI, CPM, MDMK, VCK, IUML or the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi, is posing a risk to the Dravidian main, no less than outwardly. Many of them have even resigned to the truth that their candidates must contest on DMK’s rising solar image. With a collection of outreach programmes, Stalin has been interacting with the voters throughout the state for final a number of months.
However, peaking too early into the marketing campaign might make the alliance complacent, simply because it occurred in 2016. The western Gounder belt, which routed DMK within the 2016 meeting elections, continues to pose main challenges to the DMK entrance as AIADMK has reworked right into a Gounder-dominated celebration after J Jayalalithaa’s demise.
The southern districts, with appreciable presence of minorities, each Christians and Muslims, pose a problem for the AIADMK entrance. The presence of BJP within the grouping might affect AIADMK’s prospects there. To add to its worries, V Okay Sasikala and her Thevar neighborhood might break up professional-AIADMK votes.
