Chennai: It’s time for tickets. Barring the BJP and the People’s Welfare Front, all the other major players in the coming state poll have started the process of deciding on their candidates. The AIADMK, DMK and the PMK have completed receiving applications from aspirants for all the 234 constituencies while the DMDK, the TMC and the Congress still have their application counters open. The BJP and the PWF have not made any move in this direction, obviously unsure of their prospective partners.
In this Dravidian state dominated by personality politics, it has long been the practice for party lieutenants to file nominations, paying a hefty fee, seeking tickets for their ‘master’ rather than for themselves. Often, these loyalists submit nominations in their master’s name in the very constituencies where they hope to bag the ticket. And often that works. The AIADMK was the first to open the counters and when they closed on February 6, a whopping Rs 28.4 crore was in the party kitty as application fees from 26,174 aspirants for the seats in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala.
The party headquarters even claimed a record as 7,936 loyalists paid ticket fee for supremo Jayalalithaa. Even during the 2014 Parliament poll, the AIADMK had received 1,175 applications filed by loyalists in Jayalalithaa’s name — out of the total 4,537 applications from aspirants for the 39 LS seats in TN and the one in Puducherry. In DMK too, there was no dearth of such ‘absolute loyalty’ towards Kalaignar and Thalapathy as over 3,000 party lieutenants paid the fees and submitted applications for the father-son to contest in various constituencies. None filed for a ticket for himself (herself) in Thiruvarur and Kolathur. M. Karunanidhi represents Thiruvarur and Stalin holds the Kolathur seat in the present Assembly.
Interestingly, a few have filed papers seeking the DMK ticket for the Thousand Lights constituency for Stalin’s star-son Udayanidhi. “We have no political agenda”, insists P.K. Babu, general secretary, Udayanidhi fans’ association. “We are his ardent fans and that’s why we have filed the papers and paid the fees for him. We are not seeking ticket, actually. We are only expressing our loyalty and affection for our star”. For the many in the rival political camps insisting that the DMK remains a family-driven party, Babu’s assertion that the fans’ loyalty is apolitical may not sell.
