First defeat for AIADMK in Erode East

TMC which contested the last election in Erode East constituency, has announced that AIADMK will contest in the by-elections. O.Paneerselvam (OPS) has announced that his team will contest in the by-elections. In an attempt to keep the BJP on their side, he has also said that they will give up if the party wants to contest.Following this, the election field has heated up.

This announcement by OPS has raised the question of which party owns the double leaf symbol. The party categorically states that ``in terms of symbol, it will be allotted to the side which has the majority, therefore, the support of the MLAs, MPs, general committee and working committee members will be available only for the party''. The alliance parties have also said that whoever gets the double leaf symbol will be supported.
In this case, EdappadiPalanisamy's side has no chance of getting a symbol since the Election Commission has not recognized his post of General Secretary.

Therefore, the double leaf symbol will be assigned to us as the party coordinator, says the OPS side. Political watchers say that the details of who has people's support will be revealed only if both the parties contest with different symbols. Both are determined to contest alone, though this is expected to backfire on the OPS side if the symbol is muted and his team candidate contests as an independent. While OPS and EPS are solid in their respective stand, party functionaries are reluctant to compete. The lack of candidates in both the parties has created a stir in the AIADMK.

At the same time, V.K Sasikala has not opened her mouth about this election. She has not shown her contribution in this election. AAMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran has announced that he is going to contest. It was initially expected that the BJP would contest alone. But Annamalai too is struggling to take any decision.

The fact that the AIADMK, which has been the ruling party for more than 30 years, is not getting a candidate, worries the activists. Is this the state of the AIADMK created by revolutionary leader MGR? ” Is this the state of the AIADMK which was fostered by Jayalalithaa?,” party volunteers ask in puzzled. 

Many people who had expressed their desire to compete in the Edappadi team have now started backing out. No one even came forward to ask for a seat in AIADMK. Although it has been 3 days since the announcement of the DMK alliance candidate, the first failure was that both sides of the AIADMK could not immediately announce the candidates in the Erode East constituency... a big failure!