COIMBATORE: The DMK candidate from the Mettupalayam Assembly constituency is mailing letters to voters in a bid to directly engage with them.
Kavitha Kalyanasundaram is sending mails to voters as well as party cadres and functionaries asking for their votes, said party sources. The party functionaries said she has resorted to the post as she had not had enough time to meet everyone in person. Also, the letters allow her to make personal appeal for votes.
The letters have been dispatched in an envelope of the chit fund firm she owns. While the approach gained attention among the voters, some party functionaries are upset, claiming she didn't bother to meet them personally to seek support.
"The DMK candidate runs a chit fund firm. She has sent letters to investors in her company, known people, and party workers. The letters were sent in her company's envelopes. In the letter, she wrote that she could not come in person due to a lack of time. She asked people to think of the letter as equivalent of her personal visit and requested their votes," said a functionary who did not want to be named.
The Mettupalayam Assembly constituency has been traditionally favouring the AIADMK but has seen close contests in recent elections.
Kavitha Kalyanasundaram (47) is a relatively new face in electoral politics. She is the wife of SMT Kalyanasundaram, the secretary of DMK's Karamadai North union.
TR Shanmugasundaram, a prominent DMK leader in the region who lost the election in 2021, is in the fray as an independent candidate.
The DMK's traditional vote bank has split with the entry of Shanmugasundaram and this may benefit the incumbent AIADMK legislator OK Chinnaraj. However, a triangular contest is now on in Mettupalayam, a key battleground in the Coimbatore region.