Chennai: The forthcoming coming assembly elections will witness a show-down between arch-rivals AIADMK and the DMK with the ruling party eyeing a record third straight term betting on its 'positive performance' and the latter keen to wrest power in the state after a 10-year hiatus.
The single phase elections to the 234-member assembly on April 6 would be the first state polls without the presence of icons of the two Dravidian parties - late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, who died in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
Besides the two major Dravidian parties, actor Kamal Hassan's Makkal Needhi Maiam is also in the fray, hoping to make a mark in the polls. While CM Edappadi K Palaniswami began his campaign in December last, the DMK kick-started its drive to reach out to the voters even before with programmes like the 'Stalin's voice towards dawn,' featuring tours by party chief M K Stalin.
Youth wing leader and Stalin's son Udhayanidhi Stalin, party MP Kanimozhi were in the forefront besides the DMK president who spearheaded several poll initiatives like the 'We reject AIADMK.' AIADMK has taken the lead in announcing that its alliance with the BJP forged for the Lok Sabha polls would continue for the assembly elections also.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched several projects in Tamil Nadu in recent days and kick-started his party's campaign with a sharp attack on DMK-Congress over corruption. The AIADMK had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with BJP, the DMDK, the PMK and others but came a cropper with the combine winning only one seat as the DMK- Congress front swept the other 38 constituencies.
The AIADMK's campaign this time, steered by Palaniswami, has so far focused on its slew of welfare measures, infrastructure projects besides initiatives including a recent amendment that enhanced punishment for crimes against women and children. The party has taken pride in its government effectively tackling the coronavirus pandemic and at the same time ensuring that the poor and ordinary people were not affected by extending sops to them.
On the other hand, DMK is focusing on corruption allegations against Palaniswami and his Cabinet colleagues and days ago it submitted one more petition to Governor Banwarilal Purohit seeking action. 'Collection, Corruption and Commission' were among the catchphrases it has been using against the AIADMK. The DMK has also come up with slogans like 'Stalin thaan vararu, vidiyal thara poraru,' (Stalin is coming and he is set to provide dawn to the people).
Stalin has dismissed claims of dynasty politics of AIADMK saying he slogged for several decades for DMK and even went to jail during the infamous emergency (1975-77). Also, the DMK had all along accused the AIADMK of being servile to the Centre and bartering away Tamil Nadu's interests. Stalin has accused the government of trying to hoodwink people by not making financial allocations for the key schemes it announced.
