The island town of Srirangam reverberated with music, dance and sound of crackers as the ruling AIADMK launched its campaign for the by-election on Monday.
The mood was a bit sombre among a section of cadre as the by-election comes in the wake of the conviction of party general secretary Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case“A vote for our candidate is nothing but a vote for our leader. Each one of us should consider that ‘Amma’ herself is contesting the election,” said E. Madusudhanan, party’s presidium chairman, launching the campaign for Ms.Valarmathi, “hand-picked” by Ms. Jayalalithaa, in front of the Rajagopuram of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple.
In the presence of a large number of cadre and leaders, including Ministers, MPs and MLAs from different parts of the State, Electricity Minister Natham R. Viswanathan said the by-election was yet another opportunity to prove that people were always with Ms. Jayalalithaa.
Contending that the by-election was important on many aspects, he said the AIADMK candidate would win by a huge margin. The party cadre were eager to see ‘Amma’ as Chief Minister again and hence should work hard to fulfil the expectation. Thanking ‘Amma’ for choosing her as the candidate, Ms. Valarmathi said the constituency had been the fort of AIADMK since 1977.
