Chennai: The lack of confidence in the DMK came into focus as M. Karunanidhi announced that his party would not be fielding a candidate in the labour dominated constituency of RK Nagar against Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who is expected to be in the fray in order to regain her seat in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
Spelling out the reason for skipping the bypoll, the DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi said in a statement, “As we know how democracy will be respected in the coming bypoll and considering the general election for the state assembly is one year away, DMK has decided not to contest from RK Nagar seat.”
However, it is reliably learnt that the main reason is the party functionaries, including north Chennai based district secretaries, are reluctant to throw their hat in the electoral ring because they fear a severe drubbing in the high profile constituency.“It is a fact that our district secretaries chickened out against the ruling AIADMK. At any given time we have 50,000 votes in R K Nagar,” he said.
