A curse like El Nino: Dhinakaran accuses TVK of horse-trading as Dharapuram votes

DHARAPURAM: Two days before Dharapuram went to the polls, AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran stood before reporters and reached for a meteorological metaphor. "Just as El Nino affects us," he said, "a TVK government under Chief Minister Vijay would be a curse for us." The attack, delivered on October 4 and carried by ANI, was among the sharpest yet from a former ally camp on the four-and-a-half-month-old Vijay government. Dhinakaran alleged that the Chief Minister had bought his majority: he claimed Vijay secured the support of around 25 AIADMK MLAs "through promises", while praising AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami for having "acted magnanimously". His heaviest charge was about the by-elections themselves. The Madurantakam and Dharapuram bypolls were necessitated when AIADMK MLAs Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama resigned and joined the TVK, only to be renominated on the TVK's whistle symbol. Dhinakaran held the Chief Minister personally responsible. "The Chief Minister is responsible for this by-election," he alleged, and demanded that the Election Commission take strict action against elected representatives who resign shortly after being elected. The timing of his remarks matters. Polling in the two constituencies was held on Tuesday, October 6, with counting on October 9 — the first electoral battle for the TVK government since it came to power on April 23. Dhinakaran also mocked Vijay's campaign style. He said those who brought about political change in Tamil Nadu in 1967 and 1977 were known to the people, questioned the political credentials of present-day leaders, and accused Vijay of presenting himself as a "pure force" while lowering political standards through his statements and actions. The Chief Minister's recent tractor-driving and bullock-cart roadshows came in for particular ridicule. He added a cryptic note: he said he had visited the Governor's residence after receiving an invitation, and claimed there had been attempts to negotiate with an AMMK MLA — suggesting the alleged horse-trading extended beyond the AIADMK. Dhinakaran's words land in a constituency where the campaign had already turned bitter. Voters in Dharapuram went to the booths on Tuesday weighing agrarian distress — acute water scarcity, the PAP Uppar dam dispute, the prolonged closure of the Nallathangal canal — against a campaign heavy on symbolism. Whether the "curse" charge sticks will be known on October 9, when the votes are counted.