VELLORE: Faced with the daunting task of countering an army of ministers and MLAs, the ruling AIADMK has unleashed on the streets of Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, the principal opposition DMK is sweating it out to ensure another seat in the parliament’s lower house. With the advantage of being party veteran Durai Murugan’s son, DM Kathir Anand is busy touring the constituency to keep up the omentum the party gained during the April LS polls.
Although under attack for dynasty politics, Anand, who possesses a masters degree from a foreign university, exhibits confidence of a win and brushes aside speculations of the I-T raids in April affecting the poll outcome. Excerpts of an interview:
The I-T raids held in April led to the rescinding of polls here. It must have brought disrepute to your party. Won’t it affect your prospects at the hustings?
The voters in Vellore constituency are aware of who were behind those raids and how the cash was seized. So, it won’t affect DMK’s prospects.
Your rival candidate has been saying that there is an apparent change of perception among the voters in Vellore and they will prefer to elect a candidate from the ruling-combine. Your comments.I have been with my father for about 35 years in politics. I can feel the pulse of the voters. There is no such change of perception as claimed by my rival candidate (AC Shanmugam). I am a seasoned politician but he is seasonal politician. The people in Vellore constituency are very much eager to vote for DMK. Their enthusiasm has not diminished.
There is an air of cynicism that even if the voters in Vellore elect the DMK’s candidate, he can do little here as the party does not enjoy power in the State or share power at the Centre. How do you react?
This sort of thought is being spread by certain people. You know our MPs have been fighting for the rights of Tamil language in the recent days, be it the issue of translating Supreme Court verdicts or cancelling the postal examinations. Our MPs are able to protect the rights of Tamil language.
I am asking my rivals, what their MP in Vellore did for the constituency during 2014-19? They won’t have an answer for it. The people of Tamil Nadu have already given zero mark for the performance of the AIADMK MPs in the just concluded elections. At the same time, the relentless fight the DMK has been waging for protecting Tamil land and language will fetch me victory.
Certain sections of the electorate are criticizing your father Durai Murugan for failing to take effective steps to protect interests of TN in matters of inter-state rivers, particularly the Palar though he had held the PWD portfolio for long?
It is not a fair criticism. It is our party’s government that built the most number of dams in State and my father was instrumental to the measures in his capacity as PWD minister. No party other than ours had fought hard to protect the interests of Tamil Nadu as far as the Palar river is concerned. We staged several protests against the Andhra’s decision to raise check dams.