Tamil Nadu election 2021 live news: My India Party candidate gets obscene video on her phone

Tamilar Munnetra Padai leader K Veeralakshmi has lodged a complaint with police saying unknown people were sending obscene videos to her mobile phone. Veeralakshmi is contesting in the April 6 assembly election as a candidate of My India Party from Pallavaram constituency. After a few days of campaigning, she said she received obscene videos on her phone, which she ignored for a while. A week later, she lodged a complaint with Shankar Nagar police after thevideos continued to land in her phone. She also received calls from unknown numbers.

"The sad demise of A Mohammed John, Member of Rajya Sabha, an Industrialist and politician fills me with huge shock and grief," reads a statement.

BJP national secretary and in-charge of Tamil Nadu C T Ravi said that the electoral fight is not just between the DMK-Congress and the AIADMK-BJP alliances, but it is between Lord Muruga and his opponents. He was addressing a gathering at Sengipatti, which falls under Thiruvaiyaru assembly segment in Thanjavur district, to campaign for his party candidate Poondi S Venkatesan. He said that it is the right time to defeat the opponents.

While the DMK government attracted only Rs 45,000 crore worth of investments during its 2006-2011 regime, the AIADMK government has managed to attract Rs 6.85 lakh crore worth of investments in the state in the last 10 years, deputy chief minister and AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam said. Campaigning for his party candidate in Mettupalayam on Tuesday, Pannerselvam said Tamil Nadu attracted such a huge investment because it was a peaceful state and the law and order was maintained. Accusing the DMK of spreading false information about the construction of AIIMS in Madurai, Panneerselvam said, “The construction of a compound wall for AIIMS will be completed soon. The construction of buildings for the hospital will begin in a few months. It will become functional soon,” Pannerselvam said.

Listing out several projects implemented by his party for Salem district when it was in power, DMK chief M K Stalin accused chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami of failing to fulfil his promises of constructing a ring road in Salem city and setting up a perfume factory and cold storage in Omalur. Stalin campaigned in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Salem districts for his party and alliance parties’ candidates on Tuesday. Addressing the public at Kottai in the Salem city, Stalin said DMK brought steel plant, Salem railway division, Periyar University and a super speciality hospital to Salem district. He challenged Palaniswami to list out the projects implemented in the Salem district during their rule. He said the AIADMK government did not continue many projects proposed by the DMK regime, including information technology park and underground drainage project.

People want change, as they are fed up with this government. That is the clear message from the ground, said DMK women’s wing secretary and party Lok Sabha MP from Tuticorin, Kanimozhi. “People are upset that the BJP government in Delhi is making the decisions for Tamil Nadu government and ruling the state through its representatives,” Kanimozhi told D Govardan in an interview.

If there is one district in Tamil Nadu which is communally divided and where the Congress and the BJP are strong, it is Kanyakumari. The RSS is well-entrenched here. The Congress and its derivatives have won 13 LS elections since 1957 and the BJP twice. Still, the BJP cannot win a Lok Sabha poll in Kanyakumari in a direct fight with any other mainstream party, for, its prospects are not dependent on its own strength; it is hinged to extraneous factors like having a multi-cornered contest and pre-empting Christian consolidation. BJP candidate Pon Radhakrishnan, who is contesting in the byelection slated for April 6, knows it. He has lost six of the LS polls. The 1999 poll was an aberration in which he made inroads into Christian vote bank and polled 50.2% votes. In all other elections, he has polled 35-37%. Even when he won in 2014, he got 37.6% votes. The presence of too many players in the fray – the Congress, DMK, AIADMK, CPM and AAP – and the resultant split in Christian votes helped Radhakrishnan in 2014. Also, the Church was not vehemently opposing him. When fisherfolk and some priests opposed his entry into certain fishing hamlets, Bishop Edward Rajan, who has 120 churches under his control, went to Radhakrishnan’s rescue and campaigned for him. All that is history now. With no Church by his side, he lost the 2019 polls. Coastal people have a grouse that he did not help when Cyclone Ockhi struck in 2017, claiming 162 lives. Fishermen are angry over the rising fuel prices.

Muslims and Christians in Tamil Nadu constitute a crucial vote bank for both the AIADMK and the DMK, but with two weeks to go for the April 6 election they appear to favour the latter. The Tamil Nadu Jama’athul Ulama Sabai on Tuesday openly backed the DMK-led alliance. The Tamil Nadu Bishop Council on Saturday decided to back a ‘secular front’ and to make an announcement on Wednesday. Community leaders have conveyed their concerns over conflicts between groups on construction or renovation of religious places in the state, and alleged ‘harassment’ of minority educational and charitable institutions.“Today, people are being divided on religious lines. There is need to back a secular front and keep away the fascist forces. We will inform our people in a day’s time. They are, however, free to vote for whomsoever they wish for,” TN Bishop Council deputy secretary general L Sahayaraj said. “The BJP has been trying hard to gain a foothold in the state by undermining the country’s democratic system. The only way to protect the country and its people is to defeat the fascist BJP in this election,” the Ulama Sabai said in a press release. The clerics also warned that splitting votes to back smaller alliances would end up “helping the anti-people forces”.