Campaign runs parallel to mercury

With this, the campaigns for the by-poll is inching towards the peak and the blazing heat seems to be no deterrent for the candidates or their cadre. The nominees and functionaries are planning to intensify the campaign by way of roadshows and rallies, besides meeting the electorate from dawn itself. Candidates are also trying to ensure that not a single place, including bylanes, are missed out during their campaign. 

Areas like RK Nagar, Tondaiyarpet and New Washermenpet on Friday noon witnessed a steady stream of supporters of various parties coming by foot and campaigning in their areas. Moreover, the cadre split into small groups and walked through all arterial and interior roads to mobilise support for their candidates. 

Some party functionaries said that though they had covered almost all the areas, they do not want to take rest till they are confident that success is theirs. Meanwhile, since this is a by-poll, national parties like BJP and Congress have not invited any of their top leaders to seek votes for their candidates. 

“Our leaders have instructed us to work hard till the end of the campaign date. Our candidate has scheduled to make use of the last three days fully and has devised a strategy as part of which we will undertake a vehicle campaign in the morning and evening. We will also be holding rallies in the interior parts when the temperature rises,” said a senior party functionary of a leading political party. 

“Many candidates have won the elections in the past because of their high octane campaign at the eleventh-hour. The mantra is that parties and candidates should be in constant touch with the voters every day and till the end of the polls, because there is a possibility of mind change among the voters even at the last minute. 

Moreover, this time one of Dravidian majors is split into two and both have new symbols. So, there is a dire need for them to remind the voters of the new symbols till the last minute,” said Rajendran, a senior citizen of the constituency. Meanwhile, some parties have collected mobile numbers to maintain contact with voters. 

“We regularly give wake up call to voters and for this work alone we have appointed an exclusive team,” said a functionary from Kanniyakumari district, who had been posted to monitor the campaign work. He added that another team with local functionaries has been formed to ensure the presence of all voters at the booth on the polling day. Voters say that they had been seeing different faces every day after the campaign gained momentum. 

“Despite all their efforts to lure us, we are listening to the promises of every candidate. When the time comes we will weigh all aspects and elect the right candidate for us,” said P Kandavel, a resident of Jeeva Nagar.

Candidates undervalued assets, NGO claims

A complaint has been filed by NGO Arappor Iyakkam to the Chief Electoral Officer stating that three candidates contesting the RK Nagar elections – TTV Dhinakaran, Maruthu Ganesh and E Madhusudhanan – have undervalued their assets in the affidavit. 

Stating a precedent, the complaint said, “T.T.V Dhinakaran has not only undervalued his assets but also has failed to disclose all his assets. The High Court of Manipur disqualified a MLA in 2016 for filing wrong information in affidavit. The Election Commission has many times said that wrong information should be sufficient ground for disqualification. 

Apart from this, Sections 125A of the Representation of People’s Act 1951 allows for penalty of imprisonment for providing wrong information.” 

The complaint also requested the Chief Electoral Officer to take action against Returning Officer and other officials for dereliction of duty. In the complaint, the NGO has compared the values of the properties stated in the affidavit with the guideline values as per government norms and also the market value, to point out the discrepancies. Jayaram Venkatesan, Convenor, Arappor Iyakkam, said, “We met the Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni and filed our complaint. 

We told him how such obvious errors were not looked into. He went through the proof submitted and said that the facts are reasonably clear. As per the rules, an FIR needs to be filed with the Police, which Lakhoni promised to do. We have also sent the complaint to the Returning Officer. We are waiting to see if the FIR will be filed since there is obvious undervaluation, which is a clear offense. If it is not filed, we will move the court.”