Chennai, April 17( IANS )
Sasikanth Senthil quit IAS in September 2019 protesting against the Modi regime and joined Congress. He was a Karnataka cadre IAS officer.
Interestingly Sasikanth resigned from the elite service three months after K.Annamalai resigned from IPS in Karnataka cadre and joined BJP.
Both are now fighting elections in opposing camps with Sasikanth Senthil a Congress candidate from Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency while Annamalai is who is the BJP Tamil Nadu president is contesting from Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat.
Even though the NTK and the BJP are in fray in Tiruvallur Lok Sabha seat, the fight is directly between Sasikanth Senthil of the Congress and K.Nalla Thambi of the DMDK which is part of the AIADMK alliance.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Dr.K. Jayakumar of the Congress won the Tiruvallur Lok Sabha seat defeating the nearest AIADMK rival Dr.P.Venugopal by a margin of 3,56,955 votes.
While the DMK led INDIA bloc has a definite advantage in the constituency, DMDK is banking on the support of AIADMK and other alliance partners.
DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth wife of late Tamil super star Vijayakanth told media persons that the party leader, K. Nalla Thambi would win the seat.
Speaking to media persons at Tiruvallur she said that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the AIADMK was in alliance with the BJP and hence the huge loss by a margin of 3,56,955 votes.
Premalatha Vijakanth also said that the alliance with the AIADMK was perfect and added that the DMDK preffered AIADMK alliance even though BJP had tried to intimidate the party to join the alliance.
Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency comprises of Gummidipoondi, Ponneri, Tiruvallur, Poonamalle, Avadi and Madhavaram assembly constituncies.
In the Gummidipoondi assembly constituency, DMK leader, DJ Govindarajan defeated the PMK candidate, M.Prakash by a margin of 50,938 votes in the 2021 assembly elections.
Ponneri assembly seat was won by Congress leader , Durai Chandrasekhar who defeated P.Balaraman of AIADMK by a margin of 9689 votes in the 2021 assembly elections.
DMK leader ,VG Rajendran won the Thiruvallur seat in the 2021 assembly elections by a margin of 22,701 votes defeating the AIADMK leader Bee Vee Ramanah.
In the Poonamalle assembly constituency, DMK leader ,A.Krishnaswamy defeated S.X.Rajamannar of the PMK by a margin of 94,110 votes in the 2021 assembly polls.
DMK leader ,SM Nasar won the Avadi assembly seat by a margin of 55,275 votes defeating AIADMK leader ,K.Pandiarajan in the 2021 assembly elections.
In the Madhavaram assembly constituency, DMK leader,S.Sudharshanam won the seat by a margin of 57,071 votes defeating AIADMK candidate, V.Moorthy.
With all the six assembly constituencies in the Tiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency won by the INDIA bloc, there is a definite edge for the Congress candidate Sasikanth Senthil.
Sasikanth Senthil while speaking to IANS said , “ The work done by the DMK government led by Chief Minister MK Stalin during the floods has been accepted by the people. The welfare schemes initiated by the Stalin government has also gone down well with the masses. These factors along with the traditional support base of the Congress and DMK will give us a comfortable win.”
The BJP candidate Pon V.Balaganapathy and the NTK candidate,Jagadeesh Sundher are also in the
fray. However both the parties dont expect to make any impact in the elections.
MJ Vidyadharan ,political analayst while speaking to IANS said,“ The Congress candidate Sasikanth Senthil has a good lead here and likely to win the seat. DMDK candidate is a former MLA and a good organisation man. However the possibilities of the DMDK wresting the seat is a distant possibility.“
