Two cornered contests – where there are only two contestants in a constituency – was last seen in 1984, incidentally MGR’s last election. Factionalism and splits in major parties, the emergence of fringe parties and the rise of independent candidates have contributed to the trend of increasing multi-cornered contests since 1989.
An analysis of State election data throws up interesting facts. In 1967, there was a direct fight between two candidates in 49 constituencies; in 1971, there were 73 such constituencies; and in 1980, direct contest was witnessed in 31 constituencies. The trend ended after 1984, where 11 constituencies saw a two-cornered contest. With MGR’s demise, the AIADMK split into two factions – the Janaki faction and the Jayalalithaa faction. Both the factions contested across Tamil Nadu, almost marking the end of two-cornered contests in the State.
Surprisingly, in some of the constituencies, the direct fights have been between a major political party and an independent. For example, in 1971, independent candidate K.A. Wahab beat Ranganatha Naicker of the Indian National Congress (Organisation) by 5,332 votes in Ranipet, while in Mettupalayam, the DMK faced off against an independent candidate. In 1971, a majority of the direct contests was between the Indian National Congress (Organisation) and the DMK. With MGR breaking away from the DMK and forming the ADMK in 1972, the 1977 elections saw multi-cornered contests across all constituencies. However, direct face-offs made a comeback again in 1980 with the DMK contesting against and the AIADMK; exceptions included Vaniayambadi, where the AIADMK fought against an independent.
Power of independents
Dravidian historian Tirunavukkarasu points out that this was mainly due to the respect enjoyed by some candidates in certain pockets of the State. “Unlike now, where you see so many independents contesting, people earlier used to contest elections based on their strengths and the amount of work they had done for the society. Political parties also fought in certain constituencies based on their strengths.”
“You had people like M. Appavu, who contested as an independent in 2001 and still won, because he earned the respect of people. Now you have so many independents contesting in every constituency. R.K. Nagar, from where Jayalalithaa is contesting, has the highest number of candidates. Why? Especially when you don’t have a chance of winning from such seats? People are now focused on gaining popularity,” he said.
The emergence of parties like Vaiko’s MDMK, Vijayakanth’s DMDK, VCK and more recently the Naam Tamilar Katchi has ruled out direct contests in the foreseeable future. But as political analysts point out, this also offers people more choice, a good augury for democracy.
