The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has once again allotted the Namakkal Assembly constituency to its alliance partner. This time it is the Congress.
This is the fourth consecutive time that the DMK has allotted this seat, which it had won four times in the past, to its alliance partner. The DMK last fielded its candidate in Namakkal constituency in 1996 elections, when it emerged victorious.
Namakkal always has a special place in the history of DMK, as it was in the Namakkal Lok Sabha Constituency that the then party’s front rank leader E. V. K. Sampath was elected as MP in the 1957 general elections.
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The Namakkal constituency remained a general, but double member constituency in the first ever general elections held in the country in 1952. It remained a double member constituency in the 1957 elections too, but was converted into a reserved constituency. It continued to be a reserved seat in the 1962 elections, but was changed to a single member constituency. Namakkal constituency was made a general constituency in the 1967 and 1971 elections, only to be made a reserved constituency once again in the 1977 elections. It remained a reserved constituency till 2006 elections and was re-converted into general constituency in the delimitation process in the 2011 elections.
The DMK first fielded its candidate in the constituency in the 1962 elections, only to suffer a defeat at the hands of Congress. The DMK tasted success here for the first time, when its candidate and party’s front rank leader ‘Pavalar’ M. Muthusamy defeated Congress candidate V. R. K. Gounder.
Mr. Muthusamy went on to become Local Administration Minister in the first ever DMK government led by C. N. Annadurai and later in the M. Karunanidhi-led Cabinet, which assumed office after Anna’s death.
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The DMK retained the seat in the 1971 polls too and Palanivelan was the winner.
After the formation of AIADMK, its candidate R. Arunachalam won from Namakkal in the 1977, 1980 and 1984 elections. In all the three elections, he defeated DMK candidates. Mr. Arunachalam also served as a Minister for a brief period in the MGR-led Cabinet.
V. P. Duraisamy of DMK won this seat in 1989 elections and was elected Deputy Speaker of the Assembly. The DMK won here again in 1996. This was the last time it fielded its candidate here.
The constituency was allotted to Puthiya Tamilagalam in the 2001 elections, to Congress in the 2006 elections and to Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam in the 2011 elections in the DMK-led alliance.
The allotment of Namakkal constituency, where the DMK had fielded candidates nine times in the past, to Congress has shocked the local party cadre. The party men were expecting the DMK to field S. Gandhiselvan, former Union Minister of State for Health and Secretary of the Namakkal East district unit here.
The Congress candidate will be facing AIADMK MLA K. P. P. Baskar in the May 16 elections.