Thirumakan Evera, who was the MLA of Erode East Constituency and belonged to the Congress party, died suddenly on the 4th. Subsequently this block was declared vacant. Following this, it was announced that the by-election for Erode East will be held on February 27. After that, there was an unprecedented excitement in Tamil Nadu politics.
As for the ruling DMK alliance, there is no confusion in facing this by-election. As the constituency was already allotted to the Congress, the DMK allotted the constituency to the Congress party as per the alliance principle. A lot of confusion in the opposition ADMK. The ADMK that existed during the assembly elections is no more. The party is divided into Edappadi Palaniswami ADMK and O Panneer Selvam ADMK. Usually when elections are held there is confusion in deciding who is the candidate. This time there was a lot of confusion about who is the party leader in ADMK.
During the Assembly elections, the Tamil State Congress contested on behalf of the ADMK alliance in the Erode East constituency. Therefore, it was predicted that Edappadi Palaniswami’s side would leave without contesting in the current problematic environment. But, unexpectedly, Edappadi Palaniswami’s side announced that the candidate will be fielded on behalf of ADMK. After that, it was announced that the candidate will be fielded from O. Panneer Selvam’s side as well.
Edappadi Palaniswami’s candidate was announced and appealed to the Election Commission for the double leaf symbol. O. Panneer Selvam also appealed to the Election Commission. Both the parties met the alliance party leaders including BJP and sought their support. None of the leaders directly declared their support to Edappadi Palanisam or O. Panneer Selvat. Instead, they gave an indirect answer of support for the double leaf.
The Edappadi Palaniswami side approached the Supreme Court as the double leaf symbol was not available. While the case of Edappadi Palaniswami being elected as the interim general secretary of ADMK is pending, the double leaf symbol case came up for hearing in the Supreme Court. Edappadi Palaniswami and O. Panneer Selvam, the Supreme Court heard the argument from both sides and together with the approval of the members of the General Assembly ordered to announce the candidate.
This came as a shock to Edappadi Palaniswami. Edappadi Palaniswami’s contention is that O. Panneer Selvam was expelled from the ADMK and he has no right over the ADMK. But the Supreme Court’s order to include O. Panneer Selvam in the General Assembly was seen as a setback for Edappadi Palaniswami.
However, the name of the ADMK candidate headed by Tamil Mahan Hussain was sent to the general committee members as per the Supreme Court order. OPS protested that the name of the candidate proposed by O. Panneer Selvam was not included in it. However, as usual, he announced the withdrawal of the candidate so that the double leaf symbol would not be paralysed.
To no one’s surprise, DTV Dinakaran also announced that he would not contest the AMU mid-term elections. AMU candidate announced withdrawal of nomination. Once again Edappadi Palaniswami’s stubbornness has won. Edappadi Palaniswami, despite being adamant within the party as the ADMK’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2021 assembly election, and later as the leader of the opposition, was also adamant with the BJP that he would not include Sasikala and DTV Thinakaran in the alliance. This time too he has fielded his own candidate on behalf of ADMK without being pressured by BJP.
Edappadi Palaniswami’s work is not over with successfully fielding a candidate. Win the election and show it. Edappadi, who is consistently winning in decision-making within the party, could not win the election. The ADMK, which faced the elections under his leadership, is facing a series of defeats.
As by-elections always favor the ruling party, a defeat should be a respectable defeat. Only then can Edappadi Palaniswami continue to claim the ADMK leadership post.
Even though Edappadi Palaniswami stubbornly resisted the wishes of the BJP from time to time, he could not completely oppose the BJP. Speaking to the media today, Edappadi Palaniswami said, ‘Alliance with BJP continues’. It is not known whether O. Panneer Selvam can be completely removed from ADMK in the future. In any case, Edappadi Palaniswami has achieved what he wanted through the chaos in this Erode East by-election.
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