Chennai:With the Congress naming its candidate for the February 27 bypoll to the assembly, the focus has shifted to the BJP as to whether the saffron party would take on its national rival, making the election a prelude to the 2024 LS polls.
With the attention centering around the BJP, the bypoll has become politically more significant in many ways. It was the announcement of former Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (OPS), heading a faction of the AIADMK, that his faction would withdraw from the contest and support the BJP if the national party wanted to enter the fray, that has landed the BJP in a catch 22 situation. But, both factions of the AIADMK - the other dominant one led by former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) – have sought the support of the BJP.
On the BJP throwing its hat in the ring, party state president K Annamalai was cautious by not giving a direct answer. “The AIADMK is the biggest party in our alliance. We have to adhere to coalition dharma and that is the dignified way. It is necessary that the party entering the fray should be strong enough to take on the DMK-Congress combine and the candidate should be a local and have the support of the people. The candidate should give the DMK-Congress alliance a run for its money and muscle power and be able to defeat it. In bypolls ruling parties are spending money like water. The BRS had spent Rs 350 crore in Telangana. With three ministers from Erode, the DMK too might spend more,” he told reporters in Trichy on Monday.
Also read: TN bypoll: OPS to field candidate and torpedo EPS' game plan
“A bypoll is not the yardstick to measure the strength of a political party. There are former AIADMK ministers from Erode. Since the LS elections are only 13 months away, we are not rushing to a hasty decision but considering all aspects. There is no confusion in the BJP,” the BJP leader added. He also admitted that the AIADMK has launched the process of candidate selection. While the EPS faction has started issuing application forms to ticket aspirants at the AIADMK headquarters in the city, Team OPS had a consultation.
In the event of both factions entering the contest, the party symbol 'Two Leaves' would be frozen, leaving only the BJP in the opposition camp to be a party that can contest on its symbol. But, the EPS faction is determined to fight the poll battle even with an independent symbol. “Our path is unique,” EPS said, imitating a popular Rajinikant dialogue at Theni, the native district of his rival OPS. He was accorded a rousing reception on his first visit after being elected interim general secretary in July last. “Let us work unitedly to make the dream of party founder MGR (MG Ramachandran) and Amma (Jayalalithaa) a reality,” he added.
On the BJP's prospects of contesting the election, analysts are dismissive. “Even if Annamalai is fielded, he has to secure the votes of his OBC Goundar community overcoming EPS as well as DMK minister Senthil Balaji, who has risen as a mascot in the Kongu region (western Tamil Nadu). The stakes are much higher for EPS since he wants to change the present narrative of Chief Minister Stalin Vs Others into Stalin Vs EPS with his mind focused on the next assembly election. As of now, there is none in the opposition camp to challenge Stalin and be an alternative leader and not surprisingly EPS wants to position himself as one. Hence, Annamalai has to beat EPS and prove himself in the event of being fielded,” reasons analyst Raveendran Duraisamy who is close to the RSS and BJP.
On the other hand, the Congress which has settled for party veteran and former Union Minister EVKS Elangovan, has sought the support of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) of actor-politician Kamal Hassan and is hopeful of securing it. In the 2021 election, MNM polled over 11,000 votes. The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), which unsuccessfully contested on the AIADMK symbol, lost by 8904 votes. The bypoll is due to the demise of Elangovan's son, Thirumahan Everaa and it is an irony that the father is fielded to harvest sympathy for the son.
