Puducherry, Apr 8 (UNI) The stage is all set for polling to elect 30-members for the Territorial Assembly in Puducherry tomorrow.
An esimated 9.50 lakh voters are set to exercise their democratic right when the doors of the 1,099 polling stations would open tomorrow morning at 0700 hrs to decide the fate of 294 candidates in the fray. Of the total, 9,50,639 electorate, 4,46,361 were men and 5,03,810 women.
While 253 candidates are contesting in the 25 constituencies in Puducherry district comprising Puducherry, Mahe and Yanam regions, in the five constituencies of Karaikal district 41 candidates including 16 Independents are in fray taking the total candidates to 294.
Among the candidates 34 are from National parties, 63 from State parties, 80 registered unrecognised parties and 177 Independents, having a strong local influence, making it a multi-cornered contest in several seats.
A total of 209 polling booths -- 173 in Puducherry and 36 in Karaikal region -- were identified as vulnerable and sensiitive and additional security were deployed in all these booths, including posting of Central para maramilitary forces. In all 45 companies of CAPF personnel were deployed as part of tight security arrangmenets, including 30 companies in Puducherr7, seven in Karaikal and four each in Mahe and Yanam regions.
The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements for polling to be held in 1,099 booths and has put in place all basic amenities for the voters. CCTV cameras were installed in all the booths and the entire polling process would be streamed live.
After the day long polling, the EVMs would be sealed and taken to strong rooms in the counting centres, to be mannaged by round the clock security personnel. The counting of votes would be taken up on May four.
The key demand for conferrment of Statehood status to Puducherry dominated the dominated the high voltage campaign and almost all the political parties bringing the long pending demand to the Centre stage as the issue offered enough fodder for the opposition to target the BJP-led Government at the centre, besides not holding the local bodies elections.
In every elections, the poll scene was largely dominated by the two leading fronts one headed by the NDA and the other by INDIA bloc. This time too it was billed as a straight fight between the ruling AINRC-led NDA that also comprised BJP, AIADMK and the newly formed LJK, and the Opposition INDIA Bloc headed by Congress with DMK as its key ally, and the dalit outfit VCK. The entry of the actor-politician fledgling Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), testing its electoral fortunes for the first time, makes the contest more intriguing this time, with another actor-director Seeman's Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK), espousing the cause of Tamil Nationalism, adding more spice, and making it a four-cornered contest.
A host of political leaders, including top honchos of the BJP and Congress like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President Nitin Nabin, and those from the Tamil Nadu unit, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, his son and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK Lok Sabha MP Ms Kanimozhi, AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, BJP Tamil Nadu unit leaders like K Annamalai, Ms Tamilisai Soundarajan, Nainar Nagendra, apart from Vijay and Seeman campaigned in the union Territory in suppport of the candidates of their respective fronts.
The campaign, which drew to a close last evening setting the stage for polling, was mostly centred on the performance of the incumbent government headed by AINRC Founder and Chief Minister N Rangasamy and the previous Congress regime with both the National parties accusing each other of pushing Puducherry backward during their tenures.
While the BJP has specifically targetted the previous Congress regimes, highlighted the development programmes of the AINRC-BJP double engine government during the last five years and appealed to the voters to elect the NDA for a second successive term with a promise of implementing more welfare initiatives, the Congress picked holes on the functioning of the present regime accusing it of corruption and failing to keep up its promise of the long standing demand of securing Statehood status for Puducherry, a point which turned out to be the focal point of electioneering by all the parties.
While Mr Rahul Gandhi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M K Stalin, CPI(M), TVK and the NTK promised to strive hard to fulfill this long desired need of the people of the union Territory, top BJP leaders including Mr Modi and Mr Amit Shah were tightlipped and remained non-committal about it, despite BJP's partner AINRC making an open plea to the Prime Minister during the NDA rally recently saying 16 resolutions were passed in the Territorial Assembly and forwarded to the Centre but no action was taken.
Mr Rangasamy also went to the extent of threatening to walk out of the NDA if the BJP did not give a firm committment on the demand for conferring Statehood, snubbed top BJP leaders and avoided meeting them. However, he made a sudden U-turn, changed his stance, and the alliance continued with the AINRC and BJP sharing 16 and 14 seats between them, with the saffron party allotting two seats each from its kitty to other partners AIADMK and the LJK.
Like the AINRC, even its ally, the AIADMK too was vocal in its demand for Statehood and promised to make all efforts to fulfill this demand. Similar stand was adopted by top leaders of parties like, Congress and the DMK, the TVK and NTK.
Soon after the poll notification was announced on March 15 and the filing of nominations commenced the very next day, leaving a short span of time for the political parties to fix their alliance strategy, seat sharing and identification of constituencies, fissures had developed in the Congress-DMK ties with both of them seeking a larger pie in seats and wanted to head the alliance.
As the seat sharing talks dragged on and the deadline for last date for filing of papers neared, candidates of both the parties filed their nominations in all the 30 seats, with a promise to withdraw them once the pact on number of seats was finalised, which eventually happened after the nomination process ended with the Congress contesting in 16 seats and allotting the rest to the DMK, which allotted one out of it to another ally VCK.
However, the turbulence in the ties continued after the Congress candidates failed to withdraw their papers in six seats -- five allotted to the DMK and one to VCK -- despite PCC President and Lok Sabha MP V Vaithilingam recommending to the AICC to initiate action against them. As the rebel candidates unrelenting, the National Party is effectively contesting in 22 seats, six more than 16 allotted to it, including in five seats allotted to the DMK and one to the VCK, making the contest evely poised.
The rebel Congress candidates in five seats allotted to the DMK are Karaikal South (Sakthivel Prabhu), Kalapet (MOHF Shajahan) , Raj Bhavan (R.Kumaran), Mangalam (Raghupathy) and Thirubhuvanai-R (K Velu) and a rebel candidate of the Grand Old National party has entered the fray in Uzhavarkarai seat too, which was allotted to VCK by the DMK.
On the contrary, there were no hiccups in seat sharing within the NDA and it ended amicably, with TVK contesting in 28 seats and allotting two to its new ally party Neyam Makkal Kazhagam (NMK), and NTK contesting on its own in all the seats, leading to intense campaigning which came to an end this evening.
As per the seat sharing agreement, of the total 30 seats, the AINRC would be contesting in 16 seats and allotted the remaining 14 seats to its BJP, which in turn has allotted two seats each to other NDA allies, AIADMK and the newly-formed Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi (LJK), led by Jose Charles Martin, son of lottery baron Santiago Martin.
The TVK, which had announced candidates for all the 30 seats in its maiden electoral foray, in a last minute development, has forged an alliance with Neyyam Makkal Kazhagam (NMK) of Independent MLA G Nehru and allotted two seats to it. The NMK is contesting from Orleanpet from where Nehru was seeking re-election, and the high-profile Thattanchavady seat from where Rangasamy, pitted against PCC Chief and two time Chief Minister V Vaithilingam, was seeking re-election for a record sixth term. The TVK canidadates from these two seats have withdrawn their papers.
A battle royale is in the offing in Thattanchavady, a stronghold of Rangasamy, as Vaithilingam, the present Congress Lok Sabha MP and the CM face of the Congress-DMK alliance, will not be a push over. Their rivalry dates back to their days together in the Congress when Vaithilingam led a rebellion against Rangasamy and succeeded him as Chief Minister in September 2008 for a second time.
However, Rangasamy formed his own party AINRC and became the Chief Minister and is now seeking a second successive term. He is contesting from two seats this time--the other being Mangalam constituency, from where Minister Theni Jayakuar has refrained from entering the fray citing his health condition
Among the TVK candidates were former Minister and sitting BJP MLA A K Sai J Saravanan Kumar (elected from Ossudu in 2021), who had quit the saffron party after being denied a ticket, and has filed his papers from Thirubuvanai (SC) constituency.
The list also featured former BJP State President V Saminathan from Lawspet and former AIADMK MLA K A U Assana Marekkar from Karaikal South, underlining TVK’s attempt to consolidate leaders with prior electoral experience.
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