A day after ‘no poll show’ in Puducherry, the election meetings of DMDK leader Vijayakant in Chidambaram and Cuddalore were cancelled at the last minute. The reason — campaign vehicle developed a technical snag — though it sounded trivial. The Chidambaram meeting was scheduled at 4 pm, an hour before the Cuddalore meeting. It was announced that the leader would address the people from his vehicle in Chidambaram. Though all arrangements were done, party functionaries were informed that the meetings have been cancelled.
DMDK district secretary and Panruti MLA Sivakozundhu, who was in Cuddalore, said, “Just now I was informed that the programme has been cancelled owing to some problem in the vehicle.”
“Since PMK, an ally is contesting in Chidambaram, it would not be fair to skip Chidambaram and come to Cuddalore. The leader will be campaigning in these constituencies later,” he said.
Meanwhile, there are voices of protest regarding DMDK candidate R Ramanujam in Cuddalore. One of the party workers said, “He is not a known face to Cuddalore. The candidate choice has upset the party workers here.”
PMK had announced R Govindhasamy’s name from Cuddalore but in the seat-sharing agreement, Cuddalore was allotted to DMDK and Govindhasamy had to withdraw which caused resentment among the PMK cadre.