Confident of victory, Jayalalithaa gives just 7 tickets to 6 allies, all to contest on AIADMK symbol

Chennai: AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa has dumped nearly two-thirds of her legislature party from the list of AIADMK candidates for the forthcoming assembly election. She has given seven seats to six allies, but would field all of them on AIADMK's 'two-leaves' symbol. This is the first time that a Dravidian party is fielding candidates in all the 234 seats in the assembly on its symbol.
Jayalalithaa has given the cold shoulder to a few prospective allies who were "too demanding" in terms of number of seats and were reluctant to contest on the AIADMK symbol.With the opposition divided, and some opinion polls predicting an edge for the ruling party, she was not unduly keen on roping in any particular ally and giving away winnable seats in the process, said analyst and Tamil writer M Kasinathan.
Jayalalithaa herself is contesting from R K Nagar segment in Chennai and is fielding two of her ministers from the city. With the memory of Chennai deluge fading, she is apparently not unduly concerned about a major anti-incumbency wave wafting across the state. But if the opposition had put up a strong front, she perhaps would have had a relook at the choice of segments for herself.
Nevertheless, Jayalalithaa's decision to field so many new faces could be a reflection of her apprehension about some amount of anti-incumbency factor weighing on the voters' minds. Party functionaries view it differently. "New faces are being fielded to send across a message that she will not tolerate non-performers," said a party senior functionary. Moreover, she is used to giving opportunities to new people in every election, he said. Old timers like C Ponnaiyan, K A Sengottaiyan and D Jayakumar, who were earlier sidelined, have been accommodated on the list of candidates.
On the governance front, with a view to blunting the opposition charges of corruption and lack of performance, she has accommodated most of the senior ministers who were sidelined and stripped of party posts earlier. They were targets of opposition attacks in recent months on charges of corruption too.
A quick caste background of candidates shows that Jayalalithaa may be aiming at consolidation of thevar and gounder votes. No minister from the thevar community has been has been dropped even though some of them were sidelined in the last two months. Of the six gounder ministers, four have been retained. The dropped ministers predominantly belong to dalit, fishermen and other caste groups.
Actor R Sarath Kumar's All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, which had earlier walked out of the AIADMK camp, was called back and given nadar-dominated Tiruchendur seat with a view to appeasing the nadar community, which has apparently been moving away from the ruling party in recent years.
Most of the deserters from the DMDK and the PMK have been dumped, but old warhorse Panruti S Ramachandran and entrepreneur-turned-politician 'Mafoi' Pandiarajan, who quit DMDK have been given seats. While Ramachandran will contest from Alandur, Pandiarajan is being fielded in Avadi. Seven other MLAs, who left DMDK and joined AIADMK, have been left out.