No status, no symbol: Vijayakant's DMDK faces oblivion
Published: 21st May 2016 01:13 PM | Last Updated: 21st May 2016 04:01 PM | A+A A-
CHENNAI: The DMDK, the X factor that almost everyone wooed before the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, is all set to lose its status as a state party, and thereby itssymbol and other privileges that come along it. Sources in the Election Commission told Express that a formal order will be issued in this regard in the coming days.
Election Commission rules mandate that a party must get at least 6 per cent of the vote or win 3 per cent of the total number of seats in an Assembly.
The DMDK managed neither. It took 2.4 per cent of the vote, significantly less than the 8.34 per cent it got in its debut election a decade ago. In fact, such was the poor performance by the six-party Third Front that their combined voteshare was a meagre 6.1 per cent
As a party without the status of a state party, the DMDK will be just another outfit. Having no permanent symbol is a huge disadvantage while facing the established parties. The best example of this came from the Third Front camp itself, that of VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan.
Fighting a tough three-cornered contest, Thirumavalavan lost by a whisker, just 87 votes, while a namesake candidate Thirumavalavan T collected 289 crucial votes. Thirumavalavan might have won if the VCK had a permanent symbol.
