AIADMK records a dip in number of ticket seekers compared to 2014
The AIADMK recorded over 60% drop in the number of applications bought by aspiring candidates to the Lok Sabha when its extended deadline for their sale ran out at 5pm on Thursday evening.
Multiple sources told The Federal that the party sold 1,737 applications during the February 4-14 window. Ahead of the 2014 general elections, the AIADMK had sold well over 4,500 applications; 1,500-odd of them were filed by the cadre later in the name of then-general secretary J Jayalalithaa.
The party, which asked cadre to pay Rs 25,000 for each application this time, had extended its initial deadline of February 10 by stating that it was bowing to such a demand from its cadre. The Hindu Tamil had reported that the party had managed to sell only 1,300 applications at that point.
The drop in sales is commensurate with the sharp decline in the party’s membership post-Jayalalithaa. In October 2018, at the end of its first membership drive since Jayalalithaa’s December 2016 death, AIADMK co-cordinator and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had announced that it had recorded a 40 lakh decrease in the number of cadre.
The party had lost a slice of its identity that day: its 1.5 crore cadre had come to be as symbolically powerful as its two-leaves electoral symbol, founder MG Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa.
The rise and rise of TTV Dhinakaran after Jayalalithaa’s death has also eroded the AIADMK base. Dhinakaran, now the deputy general secretary of a political party he founded after being expelled from the AIADMK by its current leadership, also won the Tamil Nadu assembly seat vacated by Jayalalithaa’s death.
Sale of applications
The sale of application forms had come to be a noteworthy event under Jayalalithaa, who would interview applicants later at her residence located in the Poes Garden locality of Chennai. In 2016, ahead of elections to the state assembly, the then-CM interviewed 600-odd prospective candidates. Each application form cost Rs. 11,000 at the time.
Party cadre often resorted to extraordinary lengths in their attempt to grab Jayalalithaa’s attention. “Members used to file multiple applications in her name as it was believed that Amma picked those who filed the most”, said a party functionary who did not want to be named for this story.
Ahead of the 2016 state assembly elections, the party received 26,174 applications for state assembly elections. Out of which 7,936 were applied on behalf of Jaya alone.
New dynasts
This time however, the sale has been marred by allegations that the party, which often criticised its rival DMK for being dominated by the family of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, is seeing the rise of new dynasts.
The sons of deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, minister D Jayakumar, minister MC Sampath and former minister B Valarmathi bought application forms. The father of health minister C Vijaya Baskar also bought a form; so did relatives of senior leaders CVe Shanmugam, P Thangamani, KC Veeramani and Natham R Viswanathan.
The party functionary quoted earlier said that rumours about a possible alliance with the BJP may also have been a reason for the drop in sales.
“In Tamil Nadu BJP, still does not have a ground. Most of the people in the state bore the brunt of the present regime in the Centre and decided to vote against them. At this moment, joining hands with BJP brings a death blow to our party. Hence, many of us decided not to contest in the upcoming elections. So, we did not apply”, said one of the AIADMK cadre. Besides, the faction in the party too discourages the party men from applying.
A second AIADMK member said that cadre are unlikely to follow the tradition of filing applications on behalf of the party chief due to intra-party rivalry. “If we file the application on behalf of EPS, then the faction of OPS start to develop a grudge against us and vice-versa. So we just distanced ourselves from filing applications” he said.
