AMN
The Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly Constituency has been captured by the sidelined leader of the AIADMK TTV Dhinakaran. He defeated his nearest rival Mr E Madhusudhanan of the ruling AIADMK by a huge margin of 40-thousand 707 votes, though he fought as an independent in the byelection. The bypoll has been necessitated by the death of the AIADMK’s charismatic leader J Jayalalithaa.
Mr Dhinakaran is the nephew of Ms VK Sasikala, the long-time aide of late Jayalalithaa, who is undergoing a prison sentence in Bengaluru after her conviction in the Disproportionate Assets case.
The AIADMK candidate Madhusudhanan fought the election with the iconic “Two Leaves” symbol that was regained by the party from the Election Commission. The opposition DMK candidate Marudhu Ganesh entered the fray with the open support of the CPM, the CPI, the MDMK and the VCK apart from the DMK’s allies the Congress, the IUML and the MMK. However, they failed to withstand the silent wave in favour of the independent candidate. Many opposition parties have said money power has won in the byelection.
After decades, an independent has won in a byelection in Tamil Nadu. Mr Dhinakaran has defeated the ruling party and relegated the principal opposition DMK to the third place in the RK Nagar bypoll.
This is set to trigger another wave of power struggle within the AIADMK, as media reports suggest that some of the fence sitters in the party are toying with the idea of backing Mr Dhinakaran, though it is hard to predict now what kind of impact it would have over the political current. Meanwhile, the BJP state leader Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan has said in a tweet, votes have been purchased outright.
The PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss has dubbed it as a failure for the people and has raised doubts about the future of democratic credentials in the state. However, Dhinakaran loyalists dismiss the charges as political rhetoric and celebrate his win.