Anti-climax of Pudukottai Lok Sabha bye-election in 1995 when Thirunavukkarasar was a standard candidate

Usually, April- May can be scorching in Tamil Nadu and the interval of ‘khatri’ or ‘agni nakshatram’ (which means the spell of peak summer time) would start on May 4. But, in 1995, it was an unusual sight of Chennai and plenty of different elements of Tamil Nadu because the State was experiencing the influence of a deep melancholy over the Bay of Bengal. Yet, the political temperature of the State was on the rise. 

The motive was that the Election Commission, on April 26, introduced that Pudukottai and eight different Lok Sabha constituencies in India would face bye-election on May 27. Vacancy for Pudukottai arose within the wake of the demise of the Congress three-time parliamentarian N. Sundararaj in September 1994. 

Dravidian majors

At that point, the temper of the folks was regularly turning towards the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who, in March 1993, broke her social gathering’s ties with the Congress, which was ruling on the Centre. Even although there was no obvious unity amongst all of the Opposition events, a few of them noticed a possibility within the scheduled bypoll for bringing all of the anti-AIADMK forces collectively.

In 1994, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) suffered a break up with the formation of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) led by Vaiko. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which was an ally of the DMK within the 1991 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, was inching nearer to Mr. Vaiko.   

‘Common candidate’

It was towards this backdrop that Su. Thirunavukkarasar (then known as Thirunavukkarasu, who ran an unbiased social gathering – MGR ADMK) needed a standard candidate of the Opposition to be nominated and sought a possibility to be given to his social gathering at a gathering held by the DMK’s chief M. Karunanidhi with pleasant events, The Hindu reported on April 27, 1995. But, based mostly on a consensus arrived on the assembly, it was determined that the DMK would contest the bye-election. 

At the identical time, former TNCC(I) president Vazhapadi Okay. Ramamurthy, who was briefly a Union Minister of State for Labour in 1991 in the course of the Congress authorities led by P.V. Narasimha Rao, and leaders of different fraternal events had constituted a six-member committee for the aim of eliciting the views of Opposition events on the scope for a consensus candidate for contesting the bypoll. Former Assembly Speaker and Minister within the Cabinets of Karunanidhi and M.G. Ramachandran, Okay. Rajaram, was the convenor of the panel, which had finally zeroed in on Mr. Thirunavukkarasar. 

In the meantime, the ruling AIADMK had introduced the MGR Youth Wing’s Pudukottai district secretary R. Raja Paramasivam, as its nominee; DMK named its Pudukottai district secretary and former MLA A. Periannan and the MDMK introduced former Minister Okay. Chandrasekaran as its candidate. 

Even because the state of affairs was evolving, the then chief of the Tamil Nadu Congress Commitee (TNCC) Kumari Anandan, within the firm of Rajaram, Mr. Thirunavukkarasar and the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party-Leader of Opposition S.R. Balasubramoniyan, introduced, on the eve of the ultimate date for submitting of nominations, the title of Mr. Thirunavukkarasar because the “frequent candidate.” 

This was accomplished on the evening of May 2 after “extended parleys amongst leaders of the Congress(I), the MGR ADMK, the UCPI [United Communist Party of India], the Indian National League, the Thayaga Marumalarchi Kazhagam, the Christian Democratic Front and the Tamil Nadu Muslim League, stated a report of The Hindu on May 3. 

Making it clear that the settlement for a standard candidate was arrived at in response to an enchantment made by Rajaram and different senior political personalities for placing up a joint battle towards the ruling social gathering, the TNCC chief appealed to all political events opposing the “anti-democratic perspective of the AIADMK” to increase help to Mr. Thirunavukkarasar “within the bigger curiosity of the State.”  

But, there was a critical hitch to the thought of supporting the candidate sponsored by the Congress, as the 2 Communist events and the Janata Dal (JD) had been critics of the nationwide social gathering on the all-India degree. Consequently, Rajaram issued a press release, asserting that it was mistaken to say he was sponsored as a standard candidate by the Congress and its fraternal events. 

After a gathering presided by Anandan on the Satyamurti Bhavan, the headquarters of the nationwide social gathering, the place the panel members and leaders of different fraternal events took half, a decision was adopted, describing the assembly as an all-party assembly.

At no place TNCC(I) was talked about within the textual content of the movement because the sponsor of the assembly, the veteran chief clarified. At one stage, it was said that the principle motive for the Congress to come back ahead to help the “consensus candidate” was to get rid of the notion that the social gathering was nonetheless smooth in the direction of Jayalalithaa even after the latter had snapped ties. 

No help from Karunanidhi

Karunanidhi had a motive to not help Mr. Thirunavukkarasar because the frequent candidate. A information merchandise of The Hindu on May 4 that 12 months quoted him as having stated that within the absence of a consensus for nominating a standard candidate, he had no different choice than fielding his social gathering’s nominee. He advised the six-member committee that the DMK was able to fall in line if the chosen nominee was a non-party candidate or one supported by all of the Opposition events.

The suggestion was accepted by the committee however there was no beneficial response from the committee subsequently. The DMK chief had additionally identified that leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and JD, when contacted, expressed their incapacity to help Mr. Thirunavukkarasar sponsored by the Congress as a standard candidate. The former TNCC chief Ramamurthy, who had initially mooted the thought of placing up a joint battle towards the AIADMK, had felt that Anandan didn’t deal with the matter correctly. 

Plot twist

All the most important candidates had filed their nomination papers however what finally occurred was anti-climax. The day earlier than the date of withdrawal of nomination papers, the Election Commission (on the evening of May 5) cancelled the proposed bye-elections to Pudukottai and eight different Lok Sabha constituencies. 

The motive cited by the panel was a communication from the then Union Home Secretary, Okay. Padmanabhaiah, expressing the will of the Centre for conduct of the subsequent basic elections in February 1996. The communication had argued that bye-elections to Lok Sabha at this juncture “wouldn’t serve any helpful objective,” this newspaper reported on May 6, 1995.

“The resolution of the Commission heeding the request of the Union Home Secretary is certainly unusual because it had turned down solely final week the request made by all the most important nationwide political events final fortnight for cancellation of the bye-elections on the identical grounds,” the day by day added. 

The Pudukottai episode, in response to Mr. Thirunavukkarasar, had prompted a substantial hole between him and the DMK chief, who didn’t name him subsequently for alliance talks within the run-up to the 1996 Assembly election. This was why he, within the phrases of Mr. Thirunavukkarasar, needed to return to the AIADMK then.

However, three years later, Karunanidhi and the MGR ADMK chief patched up and the latter went on to develop into an MP of Pudukottai.