Chennai: There is tension in the air as Tamil Nadu prepares itself for crucial elections for 38 Lok Sabha seats and simultaneous by-polls for 18 Assembly seats on Thursday. The state falls in the second phase of LS polls happening in 11 states and the Union Territory of Puducherry that will choose its one LS MP.
The TN tally fell short by one seat as the Election Commission cancelled the Vellore LS poll over seizure of a huge amount of suspected cash-for-vote from the DMK candidate's associate.
The stakes are high as the results, when votes are counted on May 23, may not only identify the next Prime Minister but also serve as the people's referendum on the next-gen leaders in both the major Dravidian parties, the DMK and the AIADMK, which are facing a general election for the first time without the towering presence of their long-time leaders, M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa.
The state has an electorate of nearly six crore voters and with the Election Commission and the government, besides multiple non-government agencies and even school kids, campaigning hard to convince the population on the democratic duty to exercise franchise, it remains to be seen how many will actually turn up to vote. Most work places have told the employees they could either come late after voting or take leave for a couple of days if they must travel to native places for it.
Road and train traffic had clogged over the last couple of days with thousands of voters heading home for the Thursday tryst with the ballot paper.
Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan (Kanyakumari), former ministers T.R Baalu (Sriperumbudur), A Raja (Nilgiris), Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), EVKS Elangovan (Theni) and Su Thirunavukarasar (Trichy), Lok Sabha deputy Speaker M Thambidurai (Karur) and P Chidambaram's son Karti (Sivaganga) are in the fray.
Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi is taking on the state BJP president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan at Thoothukudi, where public tempers run high following the police firing that killed 13 during the anti-Sterlite agitation.
It is a five-cornered contest on Thursday, with two Dravidian giants DMK and AIADMK leading rival alliances that together account for almost all the minor parties, while the AIADMK rebel TTV Dhinakaran's Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) is putting up a spirited challenge in most constituencies and actor-politician Kamal Haasan is treading a lonely path with his torchlight symbol. Pro-LTTE Tamil nationalist Seeman, also a film personality, completes the battle picture as the fifth general in the field.
The DMK alliance has the Congress, Left parties, VCK, IUML, MDMK and KDMK, while the AIADMK camp comprises BJP, PMK, DMDK, TMC, Puthiya Tamizhagam and New Justice Party. The AMMK is with SDP while Kamal and Seeman are on their own.
With his robust campaigning - he spent some 12 hours every day on the road baring the heat and dust - Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami led the AIADMK front's campaign telling the people they should vote for his alliance to ensure that development and progress continue to happen in Tamil Nadu and the state remains as the 'garden of peace'. Besides, only Narendra Modi can guarantee security for India from external threat, he stressed, meeting after meeting.
DMK president MK Stalin lost his voice; his face deep-tanned in sun as he covered the nook and corner of the state pleading with the voters they should reject the AIADMK alliance as the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues have become subservient to Narendra Modi out of fear that the Centre would punish them for the many skeletons in the cupboard, and that the PM himself was undesirable due to his lack of care for Tamil Nadu - for instance, he had not bothered to visit the Gaja affected places in the state.
How all these arguments and counter-arguments will play out at the poll booths on Thursday is still unclear as the clever voter has often misled the authors of the opinion polls, which for the record now have mostly favoured the DMK camp.
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