The concluding day of the two-day rail roko agitation in Tamil Nadu demanding the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board lost much of its sting on Tuesday with the Election Commission of India announcing on Monday the dates of election from Aravakurichi and Thanjavur, the two Assembly constituencies in the State. leaders of mainline political parties went on a huddle to decide the poll strategy.
Election in these two constituencies was cancelled in May 2016 in the backdrop of large-scale distribution of money by the contestants to bribe the voters. The ECI had deputed fact finding teams to these constituencies which recommended that elections could not be held in these two places along with the remaining 232 constituencies because of malpractices and corruption.
Meanwhile, the winner of the election from Thiruparankundram passed away before he was sworn in as MlA. The by-election from this constituency too would be held on November 19. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 22. Following the announcement by the ECI, leaders of the DMK, Congress and the People Welfare Front have started intra-party discussions for selecting the contestants.
The election assumes significance in the backdrop of the hospitalisation of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the star campaigner of the ruling AIADMK. This could be the first time Jayalalithaa may be missing the action during an election. But the AIADMK leadership is hopeful that they would be able to get audio messages from Jayalalithaa pleading with the voters to ensure the victory of the party candidates in all the three constituencies.
Nirmala Periasamy, the AIADMK spokesperson gave enough hints of circulating the audio or video message by Jayalalithaa making their way to the voters of the three constituencies. “There is a possibility of Amma issuing either an audio or video message to the voters,” she said while participating in a panel discussion in one of the 24X7 Tamil news channels. The AIADMK, which has 133 members in the House is in a commanding position and a loss would not alter the composition of the Government.
But the DMK which has 89 members of its own, will try to go all out for a victory in this election. The main Opposition party has 89 members of its own in the House and together with Congress and the Muslim league, it has a total of 98 seats. If it could win two more seats, the effective strength of the opposition bench would touch 100. This may help the DMK during the Rajya Sabha election from the State.
The AIADMK has not lost a single bye poll since 2011 and it would go all out for a victory to retain its all-round superiority. There is a wide feeling that the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa has earned her sympathy from all sections of the Tamil society. The AIADMK cadre is upset over the rumours floated by the DMK camp about Jayalalithaa’s health and they would try to give Karunanidhi and family a befitting reply through the polls.
Meanwhile, the second day of the rail roko agitation turned out to be a day of the slain lTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and forest brigand Veerappan. The demonstration staged by Naam Tamilar under the leadership of Francis Seeman in Chennai had larger-than-life size posters of the dreaded chief of the lTTE Prabhakaran and the poacher Veerappan who is “credited” with the killing of elephants, tigers and leopards and above all smuggling sandalwood trees from the forests of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
According to a release by Southern Railway on Tuesday , one long distance train was diverted (15120 Manduadih- Rameswaram Express) while two trains (17315 and 17316 Vasco -da-Gama Express) were partially cancelled due to the Rail Roko agitation.