It is going to be a tense Christmas season in Tamil Nadu as the window for filing nomination papers for the December 21 RK Nagar by-election has opened on Monday.
The chief electoral officer (Tamil Nadu) declared all the 256 booths in the constituency as sensitive booths, bringing the entire RK Nagar area under unprecedented security blanket. Door-to-door campaigning by the candidates and party workers would be allowed only between 9 am and 5 pm.
Between 5 pm and 9 am, the constituency would be literally under the control of the police and security forces. More than 1,000 police personnel have been deployed and 11 check points with drop gate facility have been set up. The State police have deployed 24 Gypsy patrol vehicles for round-the-clock monitoring of the constituency.
HM Jayaram, assistant commissioner of police who is in overall command of the constituency, said that more than 100 CCTV cameras would be deployed in the constituency. “Police team could monitor these cameras from their mobile phones because all these cameras have been enabled with 3G technology,” he said.
Rules have been tightened in the backdrop of the 2017 April by-poll scheduled for the same constituency which had to be rescinded following widespread cash distribution and other irregularities by some of the candidates.
The result in RK Nagar could be a turning point in Tamil Nadu politics as the ruling AIADMK is in a precarious position in the State Assembly. The Election Commission has stated that the AIADMK enjoys the support of 111 MlAs in a House, the strength of which is 234. But the effective strength of the House is 232 since Jayalalithaa’s death and Karunanidhi unlikely to attend the House. This means that the Government should have the support of 117 MlAs to continue in office.
The Madras High Court is hearing a series of petitions filed by the 18 AIADMK rebel MlAs who were disqualified by the Speaker for submitting a memorandum to the Governor stating that they were withdrawing support to the Chief Minister and another by the DMK questioning why O Panneerselvam and 11 of his MlAs were not disqualified in spite of them violating party whip and voting against Chief Minister Edappadi Planiswamy in the 2017 February trust vote.
If the high court nullifies the Speaker’s action (disqualifying the 18 MlAs) the AIADMK would have the support of 129 MlAs, pointed out G Satyamoorthy, veteran political commentator.
“Don’t expect anything to happen in Tamil Nadu. The Palaniswamy Government will pull along for some more months because power is a glue,” he said. Satyamoorthi also said that TTV Dinakaran has proved himself to be a damp squib as he has failed to mobilise more MlAs to his side. He could manage just 18 so far, which is 22 short of his original strength of 40 MlAs that he displayed at Melur (Madurai) meeting.