Chennai--Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has emerged the unanimous victor in the recently-held RK Nagar by-poll with a massive 1.51 lakh vote margin. Although her win doesn’t surprise anyone, as it was boycotted by all major opposition parties except the Left, it clearly heralds an emerging road map of Tamil Nadu politics ahead of the assembly elections due in early 2016. After the Karnataka high court acquitted her last month in the disproportionate assets case in which a Bangalore trial court had sentenced her and three associates to four years in jail with a Rs 100 crore fine, this was another emphatic come-back for Jayalalithaa as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, after her total absence from the state political scenario for over eight months.
RK Nagar by-poll was probably one of the shortest election campaigns she had ever done. She visited the constituency only once, that too for hardly three hours, seeking votes. Opposition had even raised questions about her health condition citing her absence from Chief Minister’s office as well as the election campaign after she took oath as the CM in the last week of May. Despite all these, the election results show that her absence did not affect campaigns in R K Nagar constituency, north of Chennai. There was no dearth of party followers as her entire cabinet was deployed there. During the campaign days, an area with a majority of working class population with over 15% Dalit votes has had uninterrupted water and power supply for the first time in their life.
However, going by the present political scene of Tamil Nadu, there is absolutely no threat for Jayalalithaa, unless there is a grand alliance against her. Not just that, opposition parties are scattered and confused, the main opposition party DMK also finds it difficult to take on AIADMK. It looks like the mass support of AIADMK remains unaffected after a year of Lok Sabha elections in which AIADMK won 37 of the total 39 seats in the state, becoming the third largest majority in the parliament.
INDIAN EXPRESS
