T.T.V. Dinakaran to register his party as reality hits home

T.T.V. Dinakaran, MLA and head of the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), has had a change of heart and has decided to register his party. He had not registered it because he felt that registering the party would mean forfeiting his claim on the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which, he believes, belongs to him and his supporters. This would also weaken the case he is fighting in the Supreme Court against the AIADMK’s current leadership.

The change of heart was dictated by hard ground realities. On April 18, the day Tamil Nadu voted in the Lok Sabha election and Assembly byelections in 18 seats, Dinakaran realised the enormity of the risk he had taken by not registering the AMMK as a political party: in the list of candidates on the electronic voting machine, the name of his party candidate was buried deep among independents. Also, candidates with names similar to those of his candidates appeared to be eating into his votes, and the independent symbols he had promoted across two byelections and which are now familiar to the people were given to other candidates. The Election Commission had, in the Supreme Court, opposed giving Dinakaran the symbol that he had popularised.

Take the case of his party candidate in Chennai South, Esakki Subbiah. His name was 26th in a list of 40 candidates. A candidate above him, at number 21, K. Saravana Perumal, had the symbol “cube”, and it had some resemblance to Esakki’s symbol “gift box”. (The Election Commission’s website lists “box” (No. 20) as a symbol different from gift box. There is also “briefcase” (No. 23) as a symbol).  Two symbols that Dinakaran had popularised ahead of the R.K. Nagar byelections (“hat” in April 2017 and “pressure cooker” in December 2017) were allotted to two candidates in the constituency.

The candidates of registered and recognised national and State parties take up the first few slots in the electronic voting machine, followed by the registered parties and then the independent candidates. In Chennai South, Numbers 1 to 3 were candidates of recognised parties, 4 to 12 were registered parties and 13 to 40 were independents.  Kamal Hassan’s party, Makkal Neethi Maiam (MNM), and even a barely heard of political party, Pyramid Party of India, are listed between Numbers 4 and 12, in the lot allotted for registered political parties.

Dinakaran’s urgency to register his political party today, a day after the voting, is because another four Assembly constituencies will have byelections on May 19. The rescinded Vellore election is also likely to be held soon. If the AMMK is registered quickly, it will afford him an opportunity to figure out how much the decision not to register has cost him.