Chennai: With DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin emerging as the only key campaigner for the party, the bypolls to the three Assembly constituencies, Aravakurichi, Thanjavur and Thirupparankundram, will be a litmus test for his popularity and electioneering skills, six months after the Assembly polls.
Stalin was a major player for the DMK in the 2016 Assembly elections attracting voters through his innovative ‘Namakku Naamey’ campaign. But, he was not the lone campaigner and party chief Karunanidhi met the electorate in the northern and delta districts, where the DMK bagged more seats compared to the southern and western region.
However, Karunanidhi will not campaign in the bypolls due to illness and Stalin would take the burden of campaign from November 10. The DMK youth wing leader is expected to focus on a campaign that charges the AIADMK government with lack of governance activities and paralysation of administration, besides the law and order situation in the state. He has already taken up the Cauvery dispute and the failure to get water or form the Cauvery Management Board as a major poll plank.
The major hurdle for his campaign will be the voter’s tendency to elect a ruling party MLA in their constituency for better development and solution to local problems. The DMK is facing the challenge with subtle promises of change in regime after the bypolls.
Stalin also faces organisational challenges in Thirupprankundram, in Madurai district, previously managed by his elder brother M.K. Alagiri. He had handpicked P. Saravanan, a new entrant to the party overlooking the oldtimers.
Divisions in the DMK’s district unit between the district secretarries Thalapathy and Murthy had surfaced and Stalin’s ability to unite the warring functionaries could be a major factor in deciding the votes to be secured by the DMK.
In Aravakurichi, the DMK campaign is more cohesive, but the attempt of AIADMK to get the MDMK votes in the constituency, pose a major problem for Stalin. Even going by the 2011 local body elections, the MDMK has won a few village panchayat wards in Aravakurichi, besides gettting a sizeable chunk of votes in Pallapatti, B.J. Cholapuram amd K.Paramathi areas.
DMK’s most hopeful seat is Thanjavur, which it had won eight times and Stalin is closely monitoring the poll campaign in the temple town. A victory in one of the three seats would boost Stalin’s popularity among the public and pre-empt possible efforts to revive parallel power centres within his family and party, after the bypolls.
