The significance of Erode bypoll for state’s politics | Latest News India | Times Of Ahmedabad

Chennai: The bypoll to the Erode East assembly seat in Tamil Nadu holds significance for both the ruling DMK alliance and the opposition AIADMK, with each wanting to send a positive message to its cadre and voters.

While for the chief minister MK Stalin-led DMK, a win in the February 27 bypoll will reaffirm its popularity among the voters even after staying in power for close to 20 months, a positive outcome will hold more significance for the AIADMK and particularly Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS), who will then be able to tighten his grip over the party be projecting himself as its tallest leader and silence his friend-turned-foe O Panneerselvam.

In the run-up to the bypoll, Palaniswami’s faction got a shot in the arm after the Election Commission of India (ECI) allowed it to use the AIADMK’s “two-leaves” poll symbol amid a bitter tussle for the same between EPS and OPS, which reached even to the doors of the Supreme Court. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an AIADMK ally, played a key role in convincing expelled leader OPS to withdraw his candidate so that the AIADMK’s votes do not split in the bypoll.

EPS also faces an uphill task of reviving the AIADMK nearly six months after he was elected party’s interim general secretary on July 11 last year, and close to two years after his party was defeated by the Stalin-led DMK alliance.

“If we win this bypoll, then nobody from OPS camp will be able to say anything in the future,” said D Jayakumar, AIADMK’s organising secretary and EPS loyalist. “The party is stable under EPS. We are working to strengthen the set-up through this bypoll. So far, everything has worked in our favour and we have got the two-leaves symbol.”

For the EPS camp, former MLA KS Thennarasu is in the bypoll fray, having won the seat in 2016 assembly elections under the leadership of former CM J Jayalalithaa. For DMK alliance, veteran Congress leader EVKS Elangovan will contest from Erode East constituency, where the bypoll was necessitated after death of former Congress MLA and Elangovan’s son Thirumahan Everaa on January 4.

Though there were talks of Everaa’s younger brother could made a candidate, but after some opposition to his name, DMK chief and CM Stalin made a trip down to Elangovan’s house and shortly after his name was announced as the candidate for the bypoll. Stalin is likely to campaign for Elangovan on February 24.

A former MP, 74-year-old Elangovan is the grandnephew of Dravidian movement founder ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy. In an earlier conversation, Elangovan said this by-election will prove their alliance’s strength and they expect to win by a wider margin than his son’s victory in 2021.

Senior DMK leaders are also helping the veteran leader in his campaigning. On Wednesday, minister for electricity V Senthil Balaji went on a door-to-door campaign seeking votes for Elangovan. Speaking to reporters in Erode, Balaji took a dig at the feud between EPS and OPS. “They were together for the assembly elections (2021) but they didn’t win. So what is going to change even if OPS and EPS meet? Is the country’s economy going to prosper?” asked Balaji. “Erode is the soil of Periyar and people are ready to give the hand symbol a massive victory.”

On Wednesday, EPS held a discussion with the 107-member election working committee of the party in which members from alliance partners also took part.

On the other hand, his confidante-turned-bete noire OPS has laid low after withdrawing his candidate on February 6. Supporters of OPS, who has so far objected to every move from the EPS camp, said the withdrawal was for the larger cause of the AIADMK’s two-leaves symbol to win. “We are just going to wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict,” said a senior leader from the OPS camp.

The apex court is hearing a petition by the EPS camp seeking a direction to the ECI to update changes that the dual leadership scheme of the party has been abolished and OPS has been expelled. The court has also reserved its orders on Panneerselvam’s prayer challenging the proceedings of the July 11 general council meeting, which expelled him and elected EPS as interim general secretary.

During the ongoing tussle between EPS and OPS, BJP national general secretary CT Ravi along with state unit president K Annamalai on February 3 first met Palaniswami at his Chennai residence before heading to meet OPS. On Tuesday, Annamalai announced his party’s support to AIADMK candidate KS Thenarasu and thanked OPS for withdrawing his candidate. He also asked BJP cadre to work “tirelessly” for the AIADMK candidate. “We are going to be together for the 2024 parliamentary elections and AIADMK will lead the NDA alliance. This win will reinvigorate the cadres,” said a BJP leader, requesting anonymity.

The bypoll is now a direct contest between the AIADMK and the Congress after the former’s breakaway faction AMMK also withdrew its candidate. Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK), the Tamil nationalist party, is the only other party in the fray.

Political analysts believe it will be a tough ask for the AIADMK in the bypoll. “AIADMK does not seem to stand a chance against the DMK’s machinery,” said political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy. “The DMK (alliance) wants to win with a bigger margin. OPS has used the SC order to wash his hands off from contesting. EPS wants to win as many votes as possible while the BJP is supporting them to receive their support for the 2024 general elections.”

He added that though the AIADMK-BJP alliance is giving the bypoll all importance, the “real test of strength for EPS and OPS will be in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”