AIADMK cadres charged up

A sulking BJP and its reluctant ally — the DMDK —are unlikely to alter the size of electoral tussle in this constituency, which has suddenly turned high profile after AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa filed her papers.

The poll campaign will heat up in the coming days when Ms Jayalalithaa herself is expected to hit the campaign trail. Though state ministers and cadres have already undertaken a door-to-door campaign, the electoral campaign will intensify from June 10.

Posters hailing their iconic leader as the ‘Goddess of Hearts’, ‘Golden Star’ and ‘Revolutionary Leader’ covert the constituency which has returned the AIADMK five times since 1977 and three times consecutively since 2001.

“Amma is like a goddess for us… when she is contesting it is the duty of each and every member of the AIADMK to work for her victory,” said E. Madusudhanan, AIADMK’s chairman presidium.

“We have marked the areas for our members to campaign and address election meetings and already our Revolutionary Leader has formed a 50-member panel for poll-related work,” said Madhusudhanan who had won from this constituency in 1991.

In 1977, AIADMK’s Isari Velan romped home, defeating DMK’s R.D. Seethapathy. This time, R.K. Nagar constituency is going to the polls for the 10th time owing to the resignation of party legislator P. Vetrivel to pave the way for the election of Ms Jayalalithaa.

While the Congress had won this seat in 1980 and 1984, the DMK had won it in 1989 and 1996. Social welfare minister B. Valarmathi and dairy development minister B.V. Ramanaa and others while campaigning for their leader at Suthandirapuram and Kasimedu areas say Tamil Nadu will prosper if the ‘Revolutionary Leader’ is at the helm.

Though frequent traffic snarls, air and noise pollution, inadequate sanitary conditions, poor quality of drinking water are among the key civic issues here, they seem to be relegated to the backseat for now as this constituency stands to gain when it returns Ms Jayalalithaa.