Even popular candidates have been sweating it out while braving the hot sun campaigning day in and day out over the last one month. It’s rather an exception for their namesakes pitted against them to ruin their chances in the polls. For them, it’s business as usual as they tend to continue with their routine work to earn their livelihood. Most of the namesakes who are crossing swords with some popular ‘crorepathi’ candidates in constituencies across Western Tamil Nadu are either labourers or farm hands. The lone sitting MLA from DMK in Coimbatore, N Karthik is facing a contender, who is a plumber by profession, strikingly with a similar name and initial too.

“My friends asked me to contest, so I have entered the political contest. I don’t have the financial background to spend much for campaign activities. I am not concerned about victory or loss,” said N Karthik, who is contesting on a diamond symbol. Similarly, the DMK MLA also has another rival candidate with a similar sounding name but with a different spelling; N Karthick. Even Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who is contesting from his native Edappadi constituency, is facing the nuisance from an independent A Palanisamy.

DMK nominee PK Murugan from Palacode in Dharmapuri district has to slug it out with his namesakes KG Murugan and K Murugan. Of them, K Murugan, 45, a farm hand says that he does not have any interest in politics without a second thought. “I don’t have any idea to come into politics. But, I thought about giving it a try and filed my nomination for this upcoming poll,” said K Murugan, who has been allotted ‘cauliflower’ symbol.

Political observers say that the job of namesakes gets over with just filing nominations for some personal monetary gains as they aren’t concerned about their outcome. However, it’s a factor not to be denied that they may stand a chance to ruin the winning chances of a reputed candidate in a closely fought poll.

DMK MLA N Karthik however said, “It’s an age old trick to confuse voters by fielding namesakes. But that may not affect the prospects of a candidate nowadays as EVMs will have photos of the respective candidates alongside the party symbol for the voters to choose wisely.”