Vellore has been witnessing a steady rise in the mercury level, which in turn seems to be hampering the poll campaigning activities in the city.
In the past three days, the temperature has been hovering around 38.8 degree Celsius with the scorching sun posing difficulties to party workers on campaigning work. A section of the campaign managers admitted that the heat conditions have affected party work and that the poll fever was yet to pick up. They said canvassing in the constituency was dull because of the heat wave conditions during the day. However, party activities pick up in the evenings, when the temperature drops a few degrees.
Many were worried that the heat wave conditions here would worsen in the next three weeks, when campaigning activities would have to be intensified before the district goes to polls in the last week of April. Meanwhile, the parties also have a lot of preparatory work to do to host party leaders and star campaigners when they address public rallies. “Only during the evening and night hours we can do maximum work,” the cadre said adding, “We do not know how we are going to cover the constituencies in the time that is left with us.”
So far, only three candidates — the AIADMK, DMK and the Congress nominees —have filed their nominations in the constituency. While the AIADMK camp started canvassing in the first week of March, the DMK camp started the process only on Wednesday. The Congress candidate is yet to start field work. The BJP combine is yet to announce the candidate while speculations are rife that former MP from Vellore, A C Shanmugam, a heavyweight candidate from dominant Mudaliyar community, would take on the other two Mudaliyar candidates Senguttuvan (AIADMK) and Vijay Ilanchezhian (Congress), even as the name of the BJP senior leader Tamilisai Soundararajan as a probable candidate is doing the rounds.