Chennai:Â The alliance between the PMK and AIADMK has been criticised by many and the efforts made by Anbumani Ramadoss to clear the air at a press meet did not go as planned.
Anbumani put forth many points that tried to justify their alliance with the AIADMK, but the leader blaming the voters for the change in the stance of their party caught the attention of many.
Anbumani said the PMK’s changing its stance that it will never align with Dravidian parties was due to the party’s poor performances in the last four elections.
“When we contested solo, we were appreciated by the people, they received us in a grand manner. But that did not bring us any seats. We worked very hard and had a great election manifesto in 2016 but still we did not win,” he pointed out.
PMK cadre Vinayagam seconded Anbumani’s statement. “The manifesto prepared by the party during the 2016 elections was considered one of the best during the time with several schemes aimed at the welfare and development of the people. Even his campaign style was considered different from others. But still we were not able to taste success in that election. Anbumani tried hard to bring about change in the State which also led to creating the tagliine ‘Maatram, Munnetram Anbumani.'”
“Though in the early days the PMK was tagged a caste-based party, Anbumani toiled hard to break that image; but even then people did not vote for us and preferred the Dravidian parties” he added.
MONEY RULES
Similarly, Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) leader Seeman said they will win if people stop voting for money. In a recent interview, he said his party reaches to the public and asks them to vote for the NTK. “They will vote for us once they trust us. We are not worried about winning or losing – we want to emerge the single largest party without the help of others and only with the support of the people. People listen to our speeches and agree with our ideas: but when it comes to election they do not vote for us,” he said.
GOOD START GONE WASTE
Umesh Subramani, a political analyst said this was not the case only with the PMK or NTK. Even the DMDK, which had a glorious start, had to slide down the graph.
“The party received considerable amount of votes in their first election and rose to the rank of principal Opposition party in the next term. Despite witnessing huge crowds during their leader Vijayakanth’s canvassing in the last election, the DMDK lost its deposit in several places. Following this defeat, the party has been in a shambles. Even now, it is not able to finalise whether it is going to join an alliance or going it alone. The fate of parties likes the VCK and MDMK is no different. When they were floated, they were seen as alternatives but they were not able to live up to the expectations of the people,” he said.
Umesh further said as long as former Chief Ministers J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi were alive, people always chose between the two. “It will now be interesting to see which party is able to get people’s support in the absence of these stalwarts,” he said.
While the already existing parties are in this situation, Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan is confident of bringing about a change with people’s support.
Hoisting the party flag at his office in Chennai during the first year celebrations of the party, Kamal said, “I am not going it alone, it is us and we have people’s strength in winning the election.”