With the Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency witnessing high-decibel campaigning by the DMK, AIADMK and Independent candidate T.T.V. Dhinakaran, fledgling political parties and lesser-known Independents are feeling lost in the crowd. The narrow bylanes of R.K. Nagar witnesses door-to-door canvassing all through the day by campaign teams of these three big contestants, leaving others to jostle for space and time.
Naam Tamilar Katchi founder Seeman alleged that money and State machinery were being used in R.K. Nagar to thwart many candidates. Speaking to The Hindu ahead of a public meeting at one of the crammed lanes on Friday, Mr. Seeman asked what the Election Commission was doing despite multiple allegations of voter bribery happening every day. “If people are asking for money to vote, shouldn’t the system change? Why can’t the EC and why isn’t the EC using its powers?,” he asked.
Mr. Seeman charged that the EC was toothless and was acting in an unfair manner. “They (EC) initially gave permission for me to campaign in a locality today (Friday) till 5 p.m. They called me in the afternoon and said the permission has been cancelled saying that a Minister is going to campaign in the same place in the evening. The Minister was supposed to campaign in the morning but didn’t turn up. So, why should my slot be cancelled for the Minister’s failure to turn up at his allotted time? Finally, he didn’t campaign in the evening too,” Mr. Seeman said.
The candidate of the Namadhu Kongu Munnetra Kazhagam that has now been allotted the ‘Hat’ symbol that was given to Mr. Dhinakaran in the previous bypoll, too alleged that the EC’s actions were questionable.
M. Ramesh, a functionary of the party said, “Slots should be given to everyone to campaign. These have to be applied online. They are saying it’s a single window system to get approval, but that isn’t the case. When we go to campaign during our slot, others are also allowed to enter the same street. Sometimes, ruling party cadre come and campaign at the same time. The police, who are on bandobust duty with us, are unable to do anything,” he said.
Mr. Ramesh faces another uphill battle – that of taking his symbol to the voters. When The Hindu visited R.K. Nagar and asked residents of various localities about the “party with the Hat symbol”, the response was consistently identical – “Sir, it is not Hat symbol this time… it is Pressure Cooker,” they said alluding to Mr. Dhinakaran’s symbol for the bypoll. Most residents said no other party or independents had come campaigning. Many said the other candidates have not given their pamphlets either.
