Author: M Bhaskar Sai

The ruling AIADMK and the main opposition DMK, the two big parties of Tamilnadu, are caught in a Catch-22 situation, so to speak, ahead of elections to rural local bodies.

Months after the Lok Sabha elections which were accompanied by by-polls to 18 Assembly constituencies and weeks after Vikravandi and Nanguneri by-elections, Tamilnadu is getting ready for another battle, this time in the form of local body polls.

In politics, it doesn’t matter what you achieved yesterday, it’s all about what you win today. If this theory is anything to go by, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, despite its spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha elections, is in trouble now, courtesy its poor show in last week’s Nanguneri and Vikravandi by-polls.

While Deepavali arrived in advance for the AIADMK thanks to its victory in the Vikravandi and Nanguneri by-elections, fireworks are expected to continue even after the festival of lights, courtesy strategies being devised by Chief Minister and the party’s joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Months after the Lok Sabha elections and by-polls in 22 Assembly constituencies, Tamilnadu is witnessing yet another political battle, this time in the form of by-elections in Vikravandi and Nanguneri.

Though the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jingping, set to take place in nearby Mamallapuram this weekend, has officially got nothing to do with local politics, there are speculations that it would pave way for changes in Tamilnadu political arena.

When there was a decline in Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi’s health in 2017, M K Stalin was made the working president of the party in a newly created post. Now president of the DMK, Stalin, if sources are to be believed, will be given more powers in the upcoming general council meet.

The timing of Home Minister Amit Shah’s call to promote Hindi, made on Hindi Diwas, might be appropriate for the north. But it was totally wrong for the south, especially Tamilnadu, for it came just a day ahead of the 110th birth anniversary of CN Annadurai, popularly Anna, a name that has been the driving force behind the Tamilnadu politics for the past six decades.

Days before Palaniswami commenced his trip, a state-of-the-art mechanism was set up at the Fort St George, to enable the Chief Minister contact officials here and vice versa.

The real test lies in 2021, when Assembly elections are slated to be held in Tamilnadu. While even his foes cannot deny the hardwork of Stalin, it is felt a few other qualities hardly work in his favour.