PUDUCHERRY: Strange but true. The DMK's candidate for Thattanchavady constituency in Puducherry landed in jail and also lost his ticket just because he went to felicitate his party chief M Karunanidhi, who halted midway at Puducherry on his way to Tiruvarur on Wednesday.
If the thankful DMK man, A K Ramesh alias Senthil, had called on his leader in Chennai, he would not have faced the ignominy, for only Puducherry is forbidden territory for him for the next two months.
Spotting Senthil in the crowd outside the hotel where Karunanidhi was staying, Puducherry police arrested him under section 188 of IPC on the charge of violating an order of a public servant, Superintendent of Police, A Nandagopal told Express. Collector and district election officer, G Ragesh Chandra, had imposed a ban on 11 rowdies, including Senthil, according to which they could not enter Puducherry for the next two months. Police had identified the 11 rowdies and history sheeters as potential trouble makers who could create law and order problems during the elections.
Yet Senthil, who is facing 10 criminal cases, including four murder cases, one attempt to murder, besides theft and burglary, was nominated as the DMK candidate for the April 13 elections to the Puducherry Assembly from Thattanchavady.
Though a copy of the ban order was pasted on the door of Senthil's house, he wanted to express his gratitude to Karunanidhi and went to the hotel, only to be caught by the police, and lost his ticket. The DMK acted swiftly and replaced him with A Ilango for the Thattanchavady seat.
In what can be termed a damage control exercise, the DMK replaced its Thattanchavady candidate A.K Ramesh alias Senthil with A Ilango. If only they had been acquainted with the former’s antecedents, they might never have allowed him to contest. For, Ramesh has several criminal cases pending against him.
In fact, his nomination by the DMK had raised eyebrows. How he was given the ticket still remains a mystery, with the DMK men blaming one another, citing confusion as the reason since Senthil gave his name as Ramesh. But it was argued that the local DMK men would have known about the identity of the person and could have stopped his selection earlier. In fact, during the visit of DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief minister M Karunanidhi and Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister M K Stalin, the matter was brought to Stalin’s knowledge by a senior DMK leader from Puducherry. He not only stopped Ramesh from meeting Karunanidhi, but also saw to it that the candidate was replaced immediately. The damage, however, had already been done. Ilango (37), a civil contrator and son of Duraihari Raman, a senior partyman, will now take Ramesh’s place. Ilango is contesting for the first time.
The DMK also sprang another surprise by nominating Geetha Anandan, chairman of T R Pattinam commune panchayat, in place of MLA V M C Sivakumar, a veteran DMK leader from T R Pattinam Neravy. Though Sivakumar scraped through in the 2006 Assembly elections, differences with leader of Opposition A M H Nazeen is said have resulted in denial of the seat. Citing that the constituency has not been given enough attention by Sivakumar, Nazim felt that Geetha would fare better after her performance in the civic elections. She is the wife of Anandam who had served jail term in a liquor smuggling case. Geetha also has a pending case.
Another new candidate in the fray is R John Kumar (46), vice-chairman of Puducherry municipality, nominated to contest from Oulgaret Constituency. John Kumar is a cable TV operator and an upcoming leader.