Though the ruling AIADMK, led by Jayalalithaa, was ahead of others during the campaign, the last couple of days saw both the NDA and the DMK-front minimising the wide gap as 5,50,42,876 voters in Tamil Nadu will march to the polling booths on Thursday to elect 39 members of Parliament from the State. The Congress continued to remain on a weak wicket throughout.
The NDA’s resurgence saw Jayalalithaa unleashing a tirade against the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi since she feared that the minority votes, especially the Muslim votes, would go to the DMK. This found the AIADMK and the DMK in a one-upmanship game of Modi baiting.
In spite of the DMK, the Congress and the left belittle the “so-called Modi wave” in Tamil Nadu (David Pandian, the CPI leader, was heard telling that the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate waving his hands at the voters has been misinterpreted as Modi wave!), the ground reality is that Modi is the focus of the election for 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat from the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The sense of despondency and dejection in the DMK camp came out on Tuesday when party chief M Karunanidhi charged that the Election Commission was siding with the ruling AIADMK. He had made similar charges during the 2011 Assembly elections in the State when he was the Chief Minister. Interestingly, the DMK was mauled badly by the AIADMK in that election.
The general impression about Praveen Kumar, the Chief Electoral Officer, is that he is doing a good job given the facilities made available to him. Karunanidhi, however, got irritated with the EC for proclaiming Section 144 under the CrPC across the State till Thursday morning to prevent cash distribution to voters. Interestingly, Jayalalithaa, who have had a running battle with the EC, maintained silence over the EC’s moves like transferring the Chennai City Police Commissioner and declaring Section 144.
latest surveys by two prominent political weeklies Junior Vikatan and Kumudam Reporter have found that the going is very close in the State. “It is a touch and go game between the AIADMK and the DMK,” Kosal Ram, group editor, Kumudam Reporter told The Pioneer.
According to Kumudam Reporter, the AIADMK is expected to win 20 seats, the DMK front five and the BJP-led NDA three. “But there are 11 seats where the result could go in any direction. Out of this, the NDA has chances in six,” said Ram. But junior Vikatan, in its survey has found that the race is narrow with the AIADMK romping home with 15, the DMK 14 and the NDA 10. Both the surveys found that the Congress will fail to open its account in Tamil Nadu.
“Had we started the campaign a bit earlier, we would have won at least five seats,” said D Rajendran, campaign in-charge of the Congress candidate SV Ramani from Chennai South. Though Ram, Rajendran and D Pandian ruled out any Modi wave, people that this reporter spoke to, in various places in the State, were unanimous about a strong Modi wave.