CHENNAI: The constitutional right for individuals to contest in elections is empowering. However, in many cases, independent candidates are caught between exercising that right and being used as pawns by big political parties to engineer vote splits.
In 2016, out of the 134 seats won by AIADMK, victory margins in 32 seats for the party were less than three per cent, and it was less than five per cent in 50 seats.
In many of these constituencies, a few independent candidates who are namesakes have engineered vote split by confusing voters and have altogether polled more votes than the losing margin of runners-up.
A clear-cut example will be VCK leader Thirumavalavan’s defeat in Kattumannarkoil in the 2016 elections when he lost to AIADMK candidate by a mere 87 votes. Ironically, his namesake had polled 289 votes, at least three times more votes than that of Thirumavalavan’s defeat margin.
In Karur, Transport Minister MR Vijayabaskar defeated Congress’ Subramanian by a mere 441 votes. In this constituency, a namesake had polled 304 votes, and 12 independents garnered 3,000 votes together.
Have the independents had any success electorally? Not at all, reveals data, which also highlights that the contest had largely been between major parties, and at worst, the independents only engineered vote splits.
In the 2016 elections, 1 575 independents contested and 1 546 lost deposits. They garnered 1.4 per cent votes overal, just close to NOTA votes. The case was similar during 2011 polls too.
The concern of independents engineering vote split has been raised this time too. In Dharapuram, where BJP State president L Murugan is contesting, two namesakes of DMK candidate Kayalvizhi have been fielded.
Ironically, one of the independents has been given ‘Pen Nib with seven rays’ symbol, which is identical to ‘Rising Sun’ symbol of the DMK.
In Harbour constituency, where the contests had always been neck-to-neck, an independent candidate named Vivek Ram has been fielded with the same “Pen Nib with seven rays” symbol.
In Harbour, even late DMK leader Karunanidhi won by a margin of just 890 votes, and DMK’s K Anbazhagan won twice by a mere 336 and 410 votes. This time, a whopping 31 independents are in the fray.
A DMK district secretary said the Election Commission can stop such acts of giving identical symbols, but they still permit it.
“How can symbols identical to that of DMK be given to independents where BJP is contesting alone? This is suspicious,” the functionary said. DMK cadre in Kunnam were upset as an independent candidate was allotted ‘Pot’ symbol, which has been given to Thirumavalavan’s VCK, a DMK ally. The cadre were worried that it might create confusion among voters.
However, political analysts say that the namesakes and those with identical symbols cannot poll more than 1,000 votes.
“Surely it will confuse the voters, but any powerful party must prove itself and win at any cost,” says political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy.