Lost Challenge

AIADMK factions turn bypoll into a desperate referendum on their legitimacy.

- Amarnath K. Menon

The Election Commission of India (EC) has been forced to put off the byelection in Tamil Nadu’s Radhakrishnan (RK) Nagar assembly constituency, necessitated by J. Jayalalithaa’s demise. The EC’s action on April 9 came amid allegations of an unprecedented bid to purchase votes by rival factions of the late chief minister’s party, the AIADMK.

Denied the AIADMK’s familiar ‘two-leaves’ poll symbol, RK Nagar has become a desperate, make-or-break battle for both factions, the ruling AIADMK (Amma) faction owing allegiance to the incarcerated V.K. Sasikala, and the breakaway AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) headed by former CM O. Panneerselvam (OPS).

It was an equally perplexing time for RK Nagar’s 250,000 voters, confronted with new faces and poll symbols—T.T.V. Dhinakaran of the ruling faction with a ‘hat’ as his poll symbol, and a ‘lamp post’ for the OPS camp rival, E. Madhusudanan.