Chennai, Mar 6 (BPNS)
The Opposition AIADMK, battered and bruised in the Erode East by-polls will be conducting a threadbare discussion on the drubbing it faced during its general council meeting on March 10th. The meeting was to be held on March 9th and is now deferred by a day.
All the state general council members of the party are expected to participate in the meeting which is likely to lead to consultations for naming the party general secretary. The party interim general secretary, Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS ) will become the new general secretary of the party.
The AIADMK ,it is to be noted has lost heavily in the recent East Erode by-elections in which the party veteran leader, K.S. Thenarasu lost by a margin of 66,087 votes to his nearest rival, senior Congress leader, EVKS Elangovan who is the candidate of the Secular Progressive Alliance led by the DMK.
Political analyst and Director of Centre For Policy and Development Studies, C. Rajeev while speaking with BPNS said, “ The DMK-led front has won a landslide in Erode East by-election. This is not the end of the AIADMK front but they have to rework their strategies and have to start afresh to win seats in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The DMK front has an edge now.”
He said that the Gounder tag of Edapapdi K. Palaniswami (EPS) has not done good for the AIADMK in the by-polls as other communities united against him and AIADMK. The Aranthiyur community which has strong roots in the constituency and traditional supporters of the AIADMK has also shifted allegiance to the DMK in the constituency.
It may be noted that in the entire Kongu nadu comprising of Coimbatore ,Tiruppur and Salem the AIADMK had won handsomely during the 2021 elections. However the drubbing the party faced at the Erode East by-poll is considered as a major shift in the social voting pattern.
The Dalits and other traditional support base of the AIADMK is slowly shifting base. The Thevar community which has always been a strong base of the AIADMK has also shifted its support to DMK given the fact that three powerful leaders of the community, O. Panneerselvam(OPS), V.K. Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran are now persona non-grata for the present dispensation of the AIADMK and this is one factor that has led to such a drubbing in the polls.
Kovai Selvaraj who was a spokesman of the AIADMK and a former legislator has recently shifted allegiance to the DMK. He told media persons that the AIADMK lost the charisma of both MGR and Jayalalithaa who used to be major vote catchers for the party. He also said that several senior party leaders in the Kovai belt had remained silent during electioneering and this also has led to the loss of major vote share for the party.
Sources in the AIADMK told BPNS that the party would rework its strategy and prepares itself for the 2024 loksabha polls in the ensuing general council meeting of the party on March 10th. The party will try to build up new permutations and combinations and if AIADMK joins with Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) of actor turned politician, Seeman, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) of Dr. Ramadoss, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) of Capt Vijayakanth and the BJP. This will be a formidable force in the 2024 loksabha elections and AIADMK can atleast put up a stiff challenge.
With the AIADMK losing all but one seat in the 2019 general elections from Tamil Nadu, the party is keen that it wins atleast half the total number of seats in the 2024 loksabha polls. The party, according to sources will be giving charge to senior leaders in each district who will be responsible for the Loksabha election campaign.
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