A political revival for Ramalingam

The political future of AIADMK sitting MLA of Erode West K.V. Ramalingam has been revived by the party leader Jayalalithaa by fielding him again as a candidate in the constituency.

The chips were down for Mr. Ramalingam, a former PWD Minister, who was dropped from the cabinet a year back after an allegation of land-grabbing surfaced, though he was keen on contesting from the seat again.

The announcement of R. Varadarajan, chairman of Chithode Town Panchayat, as the replacement in the initial list was quite unexpected for Mr. Ramalingam's supporters. According to party sources, restoration of Mr. Ramalingam's candidacy in Erode West had much to do with the choice of S. Muthusamy, also a former Minister, as a DMK candidate.

Mr. Muthusamy, who had served as a Minister in the AIADMK governments led by M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa had joined DMK before the 2011 elections. The AIADMK partymen had reportedly conveyed to the leadership that Mr. Muthusamy could be defeated only by a strong candidate.

All along, the DMK had thought of assigning Erode East to Mr. Muthusamy. But there was a change in the constituency after the DMDK rebel MLA Chandirakumar decided to join forces with DMK. Mr. Chandirakumar had to be given the Erode East where he is a sitting MLA.

The feedback from the AIADMK workers was that the party must not take chances. Hence, it was decided to bank on the capability of its tried and tested horse.