Candidates ‘on air’
It is flying time for Puducherry candidates as some of the outlying areas of the constituency are located hundreds of kilometres away in different states. While the Mahe region, an enclave in Kerala, is situated around 610 km away from Puducherry, Yanam in Andhra Pradesh is 810 km far. As it takes around 15-18 hours to reach to these areas via road, the candidates are taking the air route. While Congress candidate V Vaithilingam is taking back-to-back flights from Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kozhikode, BJP candidate A Namassivayam’s travel will be in a helicopter arranged by the party.
‘Healthy’ poll game in Pondy
While all candidates go to the voters, in Puducherry, a few voters are going to their NTK candidate. But are they speaking about the election? Maybe, but talks on health come first. Naam Tamilar Katchi’s Puducherry candidate Dr R Menaga(36) is a graduate of Siddha medicine. She is providing free medical checkup to the residents of her constituency. The Siddha doctor has opened up a camp near her clinic from where she does checkups and prescribes medicines. Are the supporters of opposition parties attending the camp? Who knows!
'Oops' moment for AIADMK cadre
As AIADMK’s Theni candidate VT Narayanasamy and former Minister RB Udhayakumar planned to visit Andipatti for campaigning on Thursday morning, cadres gathered on the road carrying flowers. Surprisingly, BJP-AMMK candidate TTV Dhinakaran travelled on the same route. AIADMK cadres mistook him for their candidate and welcomed him by showering flowers and waving the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol. Dhinkaran accepted their greetings. Cadres immediately controlled the crowd and made way for Dhinakaran’s vehicle to move.
Knows five languages but an introvert?
Is AIADMK’s Sriperumbudur candidate G Premkumar a paradox? Everything started when DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakant praised his linguistic abilities as he is proficient in Tamil, English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada. However, when journalists raised questions about his poll promises, Premkumar remained silent, allegedly as per the advise of the party leadership. Is he following the orders or just confused about which language to answer in?
AIADMK’s Erode cadre is on fire
A candidate introduction event was organised by the AIADMK in a private marriage hall in Udumalai Road of Erode recently. Their candidate Aatral Ashok Kumar was running late but a few ‘enthusiastic’ cadre decided to light firecrackers to kill boredom. Unfortunately, dried leaves near the hall caught fire and it burnt the entire pandal. Luckily, nobody was injured but the news spread faster than the fire embarrassing the party.
(Contributed by Debjani Dutta, Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam, S Kumaresan, and MP Saravanan; complied by Anagha R Manoj and Srijith R)