Chennai

On Thursday, both the AIADMK and the AMMK raced against each other by organising competitive silent rallies marching towards the memorial of the late AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa. The AMMK workers were seen agitated and when asked about it alleged that the police forced the AMMK workers to take a detour and were asked to march in factions and not as groups. However, political pundits who have been watching Jaya’s anniversaries said that the crowd that swayed with team Dhinakaran over the past two years have drastically reduced after the party’s poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha and bypolls.

“The AIADMK came with workers eating in to the road space of Wallajah Road on both sides and it was difficult for us to manage the crowd, but for AMMK the crowd was controllable with restricting them to one half of the road,” a police source regulating the crowd near Jaya’s memorial told DT Next. Pictures shot by the newspaper also matched with the official version.

Meanwhile, RK Nagar MLA and AMMK general secretary Dhinakaran on Thursday along with party workers took a pledge to retrieve the AIADMK through AMMK. The party functionaries after paying tribute to Jayalalithaa said that they would work hard for the party’s victory in the upcoming local body polls.

“There is no doubt that the AMMK has weakened due to the desertion of party functionaries in recent days. This will certainly have an impact on the party,” said political commentator Ramu Manivannan, head, department of political science, MadrasUniversity.

The results of upcoming civic polls and the next year’s state Assembly elections will decide the future of the party. The tough time for the AMMK is going on, but the party will get some respite once the ousted AMMK leader VK Sasikala is released from the jail, opined political commentator R Mani. It will be too early to discard AMMK and the real strength can be evaluated after the results of 2021 Assembly polls, Maniadded.

“More than 5,000 workers took part in the rally and the AMMK has not weakened. The AMMK is working hard to remove this anti-public government from power and we have taken a pledge to retrieve the party and Two Leaves symbol,” said an AMMK district level functionary. There was an unnecessary restriction on our rally by the police, whereas the police accommodated the state Cabinet Ministers adding to the crowd. The party is waiting for its recognition from the Election Commission with common symbol. We are contesting the upcoming civic polls and the results will create a nightmare for the ruling AIADMK, the functionary added.

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