Chennai: AIADMK deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran's promise of constructing 57,000 houses for the homeless in RK Nagar assembly constituency has triggered a political slugfest with the DMK questioning the logic behind it and seeking to know where will they find land to build these new houses in the highly congested constituency.
Saidapet MLA and former Chennai mayor M. Subramanian, who is campaigning among the voters in R K Nagar, took a dig at the ruling party and its candidate for the illogical promises made on Monday.
“Going by the promises it looks like Dhinakaran is the new superman surpassing the earlier fanciful announcements made by late Jayalalithaa. Of the total 2.62 lakh voters, if you are going to construct 57,000 houses for them, it means that the majority of the families in RK Nagar is homeless”, Subramanian told DC.
Sewer overflows in several wards and there is no safe drinking water for residents of Kasimedu and Washermenpet.
This is the reality of RK Nagar, but Dhinakaran is making political jokes. The congested constituency hardly has any open space left for new constructions and the state finances are in huge debt. Yes, there are homeless voters in R K Nagar but who stopped the government from constructing new tenements for them R K Nagar, particularly when the chief minister was representing the constituency, asked Subramanian.
“We should not take these announcements seriously. This is a poll propaganda aimed to increase the vote share in a backward constituency”, said political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy. Politicians will even promise the moon. Most of the time politicos do not mean what they say in manifestos and these are desperate situations for all the political parties, Duraisamy added.
According to an official source with the election commission, there are standing instructions for the political parties not to announce freebies and fancy welfare schemes.
“We are yet to get the poll manifesto copy and we will look into it and if required the logic behind the announcements will be asked,” a poll official attached to the R K Nagar election monitoring committee said. However, the poll manifesto of Dhinakaran has gone down well with the AIADMK cadres and functionaries. “House for the homeless, jobs for the youngsters, super speciality hospital and mobile hospitals will help us to reach the voters and we are winning the R K Nagar”, said advocate C. R. Sridhar, who is also an AIADMK party functionary in north Chennai.
DMK complains of distribution of money at RK Nagar
The DMK on Monday complained to the CEO office that functionaries of both the AIADMK factions are involved in distribution of money at RK Nagar and polling officials are not taking action even when they are caught red-handed and surrendered to them.
Talking to reporters after giving the complaint at the office, DMK legal wing secretary Girirajan said two ministers R. Udhayakumar and 'Udumalai' Radhakrishnan are involved in the distribution of money and the lower level officials are reluctant to take action.
He further said the AIADMK (Amma) candidate T.T.V. Dinakaran is indulging in a lavish campaign with a number of vehicles and the officials are not curbing his campaign. The model code of conduct is not being followed in RK Nagar, he complained and demanded strict action to implement the model code of conduct.
