The failure of the Central leadership and the Congress to take a decision on fielding a candidate or extending support to any of the political parties in the Assembly by-poll scheduled for June 27 from RK Nagar constituency has resulted in both the parties becoming irrelevant in Tamil Nadu. AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa is contesting from the constituency to fulfil the constitutional requirement that she should get elected as MlA within six months of her swearing-in to be the Chief Minister.
Though there are 28 candidates in the race for the by-election, which was necessitated due to the resignation of P Vetrivel of the AIADMK, Jayalalithaa (AIADMK) and C Mahendran (CPI) are the main contenders. The major parties in Tamil Nadu like the DMK, the DMDK, the PMK and the MDMK boycotted the by-poll on one pretext or other. The race has almost become a one-horse race with the AIADMK leader all set to sweep the election.
The AIADMK chief is yet to visit the constituency. But her party cadre, including ministerial colleagues are in a house-to-house campaign. The DMK cried off the election with the allegation that “official machinery was being misused by the AIADMK with the law enforce g agency looking the other way”. But the party has not succeeded in proving any of the allegation which has made it a case of sour grapes, according to a spokesman of the AIADMK.
The sympathy wave in favour of Jayalalithaa following her victory in the Karnataka High Court which upheld her petition challenging the verdict of the Special Court sentencing her to four years imprisonment in the disproportionate asset case will ensure her smooth sailing in R K Nagar, a stronghold of the AIADMK. When the CPI decided to field C Mahendran, the popular face of that party, there ws some expectation that other parties may extend support to him making the contest lively.
But barring the AIADMK and the lefts, no other parties have taken any decision vis-à-vis the by-poll making it a sure win for Jayalalithaa. The central leadership of both the BJP and the Congress are dependent on the AIADMK in national politics which has made them play a game of hide and seek. Interestingly, the state leadership of the BJP failed to find at least one candidate to take on Jayalalithaa at R K Nagar. A party insider told that even those leaders who had pleaded with the state leadership to field them as candidate at Sreerangam early this year refused to take the bite when they were offered the candidature at RK Nagar. The only voice of dissidence which is heard at RK Nagar is that of Mahendran. “I am sure the electorate would not vote en masse for Jayalalithaa,” he told The Pioneer.