Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s victory in R.K. Nagar bypoll is a foregone conclusion and it does not bode well for the Opposition, more so the DMK, which once prided in Chennai being called its fortress.Testimony to DMK’s dented pride is the jitters felt by the party rank and file in the north Chennai party unit. Be it district or area secretaries, ex-MLAs or councillors, you name it, few were ready to face the AIADMK juggernaut in R.K. Nagar. This is a sea change from the days when even the high and mighty of the AIADMK of the glorious days of late MGR, were not optimistic in taking on the DMK in the 13 Chennai constituencies, 12 of which it had won even while ending runner-up in the Assembly polls held immediately after the Emergency.
The entire north Chennai DMK unit is beset with the fear that once Amma retains her Radhakrishnan Nagar seat in the next general Assembly elections in 2016, it would affect the political career of the local DMK functionaries and have an adverse effect on the party. Such damage wrought in the metropolis would have an adverse effect on at least 30 Assembly seats in the total of 234 constituencies in TN.
DMK's leaders used to take pride in flaunting their hold on the city by standing in the polls here. But, one by one, many, including M. Karunanidhi, M.K. Stalin and T.R. Baalu, began to gravitate out of the city to safer seats in the districts.“We had hoped that our party high command would be fielding a candidate to take on Jayalalithaa in the bypoll. The decision not to is good for party workers as it saves them time and energy, but it is not good for the DMK which usually fights all elections,” said a local DMK functionary in north Chennai, adding that the recent party organisation polls had created a fissure among the newcomers and old-timers.
“In case of the Srirangam bypoll, Tiruchy strongman K.N. Nehru assured the party high command of a fight and though the results were expected to be in favour of the ruling party, which has inevitably been the norm irrespective of which of the Dravidian majors was the ruling party during bypolls, the DMK candidate managed to secure sizeable votes on his own sans any alliance.”
“The 1-2 result of the Dravidian majors may have proved the point that the DMK is the only alternative force to its archrival AIADMK”, said a DMK councillor of Chennai corporation.
While seeking anonymity on offering the comment, he said most of his party seniors aspiring for MLAs seats will now look towards seats located in central and south Chennai for the 2016 general Assembly polls.“Please visit R.K. Nagar. The constituency voters erupted for Amma on Friday. Await a record breaking bypoll result. We are in the process of decimating the DMK from north and the whole of Chennai,” said former R.K. Nagar MLA P. Vettrivel in the midst of his campaign seeking votes for his party supremo.
At least that is what even some (poll) battle-hardened DMK supporters like suspended party organising secretary V. Kalayanasundaram believe. “Forget the outcome. Whatever little comes out of it would have been an advantage. Why miss it? If we don't, who else will contest?” he said. Except for the one instance when MGR contested in Alandur, the ruling party was never a confident force in the city. The AIADMK founder had kept the DMK out of power for 12 years, but there is a feeling that the party still considered Chennai seats as unsafe. The number of seats held in the city was reduced to a paltry two in Chepauk and Kolathur, the two constituencies won by the DMK in 2011. The candidature of Jayalalithaa in Chennai will only punch more holes in that cracking wall of the DMK fortress.
