PMK heir apparent and former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who is testing the electoral waters for the first time from the Dharmapuri Parliamentary constituency, on Sunday appealed to voters to back him in full measure.
Anbumani, whose entry into politics a decade ago came as a surprise because his father and PMK founder S Ramadoss had insisted that neither he nor his family members would seek any elected post, was earlier accused by critics of having made a ‘backdoor’ entry to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha.
On Sunday his father introduced him to the Dharmapuri electorate as the party’s candidate for the coming general election. When his turn to speak came, Anbumani said, “I am not a representative of the PMK. I am the common candidate of Dharmapuri. I had dedicated the Government Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital to Dharmapuri when I was Union Health Minister.”
He also claimed that the PMK deserved credit for the implementation of the Hogenakkal water project scheme as the party had staged various protests for it.
Earlier, Ramadoss hoped that the PMK would win big in the election since it had polled over two lakh votes in the Dharmapuri constituency when it first entered the poll fray in 1989 pushing even the DMK candidate to the third place.
In the backdrop of criticism that the PMK was a party that was against the Dalits, Ramadoss claimed: “We are not against any community or religion. The PMK is a common party struggling for the people’s welfare.”