Though the date of polling is still five days away, the BJP-led front in Tamil Nadu has surrendered two of the 234 Assembly constituencies without a fight. While the BJP candidate from Madathikulam constituency in Tirupur district jumped the fence and joined the AIADMK on Sunday, the nomination papers submitted by the party candidate and even his dummy were rejected by the returning officer at Pennagaram in Dharmapuri district.
Pennagaram is the constituency from where Anbumani Ramadoss, the PMK’s chief ministerial candidate seeks election. In a strange coincidence, the nomination papers submitted by KP Kanthasamy and KC Murugesan, the BJP candidate and his dummy were rejected as the documents were not in proper order and complete. Hence there is no BJP candidate in Pennagarama.
What has baffled political observers is that during the 2014 lok Sabha election, the nomination papers of S Gurumurthy, the BJP candidate, was rejected from the Nilgri constituency citing the same reason. Gurumurthy joined the AIADMK recently and is actively campaigning for the party candidates in Nilgiris.
The crossing over of BJP candidates to other parties is nothing new, pointed out T Balasubramania Adityan, president, Modi Parishad. "GPR Vellaiyammal, BJP candidate for the Tirunelveli mayoral election deflected to the AIADMK in 2014 on the eve of the election. Many BJP candidates who were fielded in the local body by election in 2014, crossed over to the AIADMK. This is not an isolated affair," said Adityan.
The BJP leaders in the State are waiting with bated breath and seeking divine intervention to ensure that no more party candidates cross over to other parties till Thursday because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district on Wednesday for election campaign.
The well attended Kanyakumari rally of the Prime Minister on Sunday turned out to be a big disappointment for BJP's friends and supporters alike. "The speech delivered by the Prime Minister was simply brilliant. But the Tamil translator mutilated, destroyed and spoiled the entire speech," said Radha Rajan, author and social activist based in Chennai. Many people with whom this correspondent spoke, were of the view that the translation of Modi's Kanyakumari speech was a disaster.
Neither the office of union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan nor Tamilissai Sounderarajan could give the name of the person who translated Modi's speech. "I was busy with campaigning in Chennai," said Sounderarajan while Radhakrishnan's office at Kanyakumari feigned ignorance.
Radha Rajan pointed out the charge made by P Chidambaram, former union minister and a leading Modi hater during an election meeting that Modi's language was unbecoming of a Prime Minister. "I am sure Chidambaram who does not know Hindi was making the allegation based on the Tamil translation of the Prime Minister's Kanyakumari speech" she said.