Sidelined AIADMK candidate T.T.V. Dhinakaran has a clear lead over his rivals — DMK’s Marudu Ganesh and AIADMK’s E. Madhusudhanan — in the R.K. Nagar constituency bypoll to be held on December 21, predicts a survey conducted by People Studies in over 156 streets after interviewing 3,120 voters.
A team led by S. Rajanayagam, formerly of Loyola College, conducted the survey, and claimed that Mr. Dhinakaran is likely to get the support of 35.4% of voters while Mr. Ganesh and Mr. Madhusudhanan are likely to get 25.9% and 20.6% respectively.
Asked to reflect on the AIADMK rule, 73.3% of the voters said that the administration was bad while 22.1% said there was nothing much to say.
The State government also fared badly in the aftermath of Cyclone Ockhi, which severely affected fisherfolk in Kanniyakumari. Around 93.5% said that the natural disaster was not handled effectively.
The study also placed Mr. Dhinakaran first on a list where he is compared to other candidates on the basis of seven personality traits such as intellectual capacity, fearlessness, administrative capacity, initiative, media handling, relationship with common people and social responsibility. Mr. Ganesh and Mr. Madhusudhanan take the second and third place respectively.
The study also said that around 91.6% voters of R.K. Nagar could connect the ‘Pressure Cooker’ symbol to the candidate (Mr. Dhinakaran) much better than Mr. Madhusudhanan (Two Leaves was recognised only by 81.1%), Mr. Ganesh (Rising Sun, recognised by only 77.8 %) and Kalaikottudhayam (Two Candles, recognised by 14.2%) and Karu. Nagarajan (Lotus, recognised by 10.4%).
