A little trouble on the ground
With the October 6 bypolls knocking on the door, the ruling TVK seems to have realised that all is not exactly music on the ground. Feedback reaching the leadership painted a not-so-encouraging picture in Dharapuram, where videos of people opposing the TVK candidate have been doing the rounds online. A late-evening meeting of senior ministers and a political advisor on September 17 followed, with candidate’s security eventually tightened. Another headache came from ex-AIADMK ministers who crossed over but were unhappy with their new roles. Perhaps to keep their vote base intact, 11 of them were made deputy general secretaries on Friday.
Prabhakar Tamilarasu
Transfer-ku oru brake
Tiruchy has a posting problem of its own. The district has vacancies for Motor Vehicle Inspectors, but few serving officials appear keen to seek a transfer here. The reluctance comes with heightened vigilance scrutiny, including a bribery complaint against an inspector who was relieved from Tiruchy in February and surprise checks by the DVAC at RTO offices. So, while the department needs more inspectors in Tiruchy, those in service do not appear enthusiastic about a posting here. The department is now looking to newly recruited Grade-II inspectors.
Vivanesh Parthiban
A loose connection
With power cuts already a sore point, a mic at a Dharapuram farmers’ meet was enough to get the crowd thinking the worst. Some ministers were meeting farmers on Saturday when the mic suddenly went quiet. A few murmurs followed, some wondered if the power had gone too. A senior minister quickly stepped in to prevent it from becoming a political issue, clarifying that there was no power cut and someone had simply unplugged the wire. He also urged the crowd not to make a mountain out of a loose wire.
P Srinivasan
Blockade gets an upgrade
A blockade became an “attack” in a TVK MLA’s lexicon in the Dharapuram by-election campaign, forcing supporters of a TVK minister to step in. In a statement warning the opposition, the woman MLA claimed that the minister had been attacked, prompting his supporters to object. They said no one had attacked the minister, though some opposition workers had caused trouble wherever he campaigned. Such political skirmishes, they said, could be handled easily. Their concern was that the MLA, without knowing whether it was an attack or a blockade, had chosen the more dramatic version, something they felt could hurt the minister’s public image.
R Kirubakaran