Dhinakaran claims Jaya’s RK Nagar seat

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 24

Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran today won the prestigious RK Nagar bypoll by over 40,000 votes, upstaging all political players, including BJP that has been trying to make inroads into Tamil Nadu.

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Dhinakaran, who secured 89,013 votes as an Independent, beat his nearest AIADMK rival E Madhusudanan by 40,707 votes in the constituency represented by the larger-than-life J Jayalalithaa, the late Chief Minister. 

DMK’s N Maruthu Ganesh finished a distant third with 24,651 votes, in the process losing his deposit, as also 57 others, including the BJP nominee. Dhinakaran, nephew of jailed leader VK Sasikala, also bettered Jaya’s winning margin of 39,545 in the 2016 polls. RK Nagar has more women voters than men — of 2,28,234 voters, 1,17,232 are women.

The verdict is likely to have a dramatic impact on the state marked by equally dramatic politics. 

Political observers see it as a rebuff to the ruling AIADMK regime headed by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam. The BJP may have been a non-entity in these polls, but it has been backing the AIADMK (minus Dhinakaran and aunt Sasikala) to remain in power. The verdict proves the “most successful political party misjudged Tamil Nadu”, they add.

After Dhinakaran’s win, BJP’s “TN record” Subramanian Swamy tweeted: “A national ruling party gets a quarter of NOTA’s vote. Time for accountability.” He also predicted that AIADMK factions would unite for the 2019 polls. “I expect to see the two ADMK factions now to unite for 2019 LS poll.”

Dhinakaran’s win is expected to deeply impact the EPS-OPS minority government with many predicting a “sooner than later” ouster. Already, there is speculation of Dhinakaran staging a political coup.

The saffron party has been trying to make inroads into the state dominated by Jayalalithaa-nurtured AIADMK and M Karunanidhi’s DMK.

The vacuum created by Jayalalithaa’s death provided it the chance. BJP supporters claim “money power” and “unethical” release of Jayalalithaa’s video by Dhinakaran as “real reasons” for his win.

But for the man claiming to be the rightful heir to Jaya’s political legacy, the bypoll success could not have come at a more appropriate time. RK Nagar is Jayalaithaa’s bastion and it has chosen Dhinakaran.

So far as the DMK is concerned, RK Nagar would have lent credence to its campaign that people were fed up with the “horse-trading” regime of the AIADMK. But given that it is an AIADMK bastion, the bigger loser is the EPS-OPS group. With as many as 39 seats in the kitty, Tamil Nadu is a key player in national politics. It remains to be seen if the DMK aligns with the BJP or the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.