Madurai: With no leading campaigners but for treasurer Stalin whose visit is scheduled at the fag-end, the campaign scenario in the DMK in Madurai remains sobre.
To pep up canvassing, the district unit has unanimously requested the party leadership to send actor Khushboo to the Madurai Lok Sabha constituency which has been skipped by leaders like Anbazhagan and Kanimozhi obviously due to the presence of M.K. Alagiri, the elder son of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, who was expelled from the party recently.
Small-time actors such as Kumarimuthu and Vagai Chandrasekar made a visit to the constituency to mobilise votes for DMK candidate V. Veluchamy and debator ‘Dindigul’ Leoni is likely to use his oratory skills to woo the electorate to the DMK on Thursday.
But for this tiny group, the DMK has refrained from sending popular faces to show up in Madurai. However, Mr Stalin, who has been carrying the entire campaign burden on his shoulders, has allotted an entire day for an exhaustive road show in the constituency on April 20.
The next day, he will tour Theni and Dindigul constituencies. He camped in the city for a couple of days and discussed poll strategies with the functionaries when he campaigned in Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and Virudhunagar for a day each in the first week of April.
“The visit of our Thalapathi a few days ahead of the state going to polls will, no doubt, boost the morale of cadres. But when our archrival AIADMK has been bringing a star-studded bandwagon of speakers, we feel low as the members of the public are excited only when stars or leaders come calling,” a functionary said.
Both the urban and rural units have collectively made their appeal to the leadership to send Khushboo for a day. “Her presence can make our otherwise dull campaign lively.
She can attract TV-watching housewives and rural women as she did in the 2011 assembly polls,” he said. Khushboo as ordered by the high command is covering central, western and northern districts only.
Given the internal strife within the first family, the DMK functionaries prefer to remain silent over star campaigner and their leader’s daughter Kanimozhi giving Madurai a miss.
Kanimozhi will circumvent the constituency though she would tour Dindigul and Nadar-dominant districts such as Virudhunagar, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari. DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan too has avoided Madurai despite addressing meetings in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Thoothukudi.
“Peraasiriyar (as Anbazhagan is fondly called) has been visiting only those places where Kalaignar could not go,” another functionary said.
However, he admitted that Kalaignar’s poll speech in Madurai on Sunday lacked the usual punch and failed to enthuse the cadres.
