Campaign gains pace, all eyes to be on Vellore till Aug 5 

With the ranks and files of Opposition DMK also ascending into Vellore, the party offices and the secretariat complex in Chennai is now deserted.

The AIADMK had also started working on multiple strategies to win the Vellore seat. AIADMK party high command led by senior ministers have started micromanaging the booth management committee in Vellore and the party has dispatched maximum heavy weights to Vaniyambadi and Kizhvaithyankuppam Assembly constituency.

According to AIADMK headquarters sources, Vellore has six assembly constituencies and each constituency will be micro managed by a team of four Ministers and 12 MLAs. Besides the party had also dispatched two dozen advocates and the party spokespersons to handle the poll machinery and campaign works.

“With the majority of the TN MLAs now micro managing the poll works for Vellore seat, the party followers of both AIADMK and DMK are missing and there is no sales of party flags and vehicle stickers,” said S Arumugham, a sticker shop owner in General Patters road.

Meanwhile, the recent interview by a former minister S Semmalai has created an embarrassment for party spokespersons. The MLA admitted that the party will project Palaniswami as the face for Vellore Lok Sabha poll and the party will campaign on its own and there is no need to depend on the national alliance partner.

The campaign for Vellore Lok sabha seat will be fought under the banner of EPS and not under the banner of PM Modi,Semmalai said.

It may be noted that there is no official confirmation from the AIADMK that whether the BJP leaders will hit the campaign trail in Vellore.

“The AIADMK has got permission for 40 senior members as star campaigners for the poll and the majority of them are now toeing on the lines of former CM J Jayalalithaa of fighting Vellore on its own. There are close to five lakh minorities votes and the local party functionaries feel that the pro BJP stand may affect the prospects of Vellore AIADMK candidate AC Shanmugam,” said an AIADMK MLA, who is part of the Vellore campaign committee.

Meanwhile, in Vellore, Collector A Shanmugasundaram participated in a flag march along with police and CISF personnel through the main streets of the town. Similar marches were also held in Vaniyambadi, officials said.

DMK president MK Stalin on Tuesday claimed that they would secure a bigger victory in Vellore than they did in the recently concluded Parliamentary elections. Inaugurating several welfare projects in his Kolathur constituency, Stalin said, “I am confident that the victory margin in Vellore would be much more than what we had achieved in the recently concluded Parliamentary elections.”

The DMK has again fielded its Treasurer Duraimurugan’s son Kathir Anand, who will be facing AIADMK’s AC Shanmugam, who has been walking the extra mile even while the principal opposition was engrossed in the just concluded session of the Assembly.

Even the session of the Assembly was cut short by a week for the two parties to campaign for the election.

The meeting organised by the DMK to welcome defectors from other parties in Theni has allayed newcomer Thanga Tamilselvan’s fears. The former TTV Dhinakaran loyalist was understood to have received an assurance personally from Stalin on his political future in the party. This, after news spread about Tamilselvan confiding to his friends that he might have shown haste in defecting to the DMK, which reached the ears of Stalin. The DMK president had calmed the disgruntled former MLA, advising him to immediately organise the rallyin Theni.