Namesakes play spoilsport in six constituencies

CHENNAI: It's not just voters who are in deep trouble over identifying prospective representatives. The official candidates of major political parties too are in a spot with their namesakes spelling trouble.
After the Election Commission rejected erroneous nominations on Monday, at least six of the 16 constituencies in the city have candidates with names that sound similar.
The names that are similar to those of the heavyweights in the fray are not serious contenders, but independents fielded by rivals to divide votes. For instance, AIADMK's B Valarmathi is pitted against Hasan Ali Jinnah of DMK in Thousand Lights, but she also has a rival in P Valarmathi, an independent. "I am not bogged down by namesakes. My constituency has many literate people and my party and its two leaves symbol will speak for me," said former social welfare minister B Valarmathi.
The heavyweight candidates aren't too concerned by rivals fielding candidates with similar names, who they say are part of an age-old tradition in the state. In T Nagar, A Chellakumar, a former MLA and Congress candidate, faces double trouble with independents S Selvakumar and Adi Selvakumar standing for the same seat. D Selvakumar, another contestant would have been on the list but for election commission, which rejected his papers after finding that the affidavit in form 26 was not properly filled up.
"The moment they come to know they are opposing a bigshot and voters are taking sides, rival parties field people with similar names to confuse voters and divide the votebank," Chellakumar said.
It Royapuram, former law minister and AIADMK candidate D Jayakumar got lucky as the returning officer rejected the papers of another D Jayakumar on Monday. Another close contestant J Jayakumar withdrew his papers on Tuesday. The DMK front has fielded Congress north Chennai district president R Mano against the AIADMK strongman and three-time MLA.
With the papers of Independent candidate M Rajalakshmi being rejected, as her proposers' numbers and serial numbers failed to tally with the electoral roll, the AIADMK's official candidate and advocate R Rajalakshmi can heave a sigh of relief. But DMDK's candidate for Virugambakkam, P Parthasarathy is up against N Parthasarathy.
In Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar, DMK candidate P K Sekar Babu, said, "The opponent camps are jittery over their prospects hence they fielding namesakes from areas like Purasawalkam. Those who have faith in democracy will not resort to such cheap practices." Sekar is putting up a stiff fight against AIADMK's P Vetrivel, besides independent contestants M M Sekar and K Sekar.