Lok Sabha elections 2019: Kanimozhi, Tamilisai in prestige fight from Tamil Nadu port city seat
The seat was also witness to a larger battle between the DMK, whose supremo M Karunanidhi (Kanimozhi’s father) passed away last year, and the BJP who has allied with ruling party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham.
Elections in 38 Lok Sabha and 18 (out of 22) assembly by-poll seats were held simultaneously in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament M Kanimozhi was in the eye of the storm two days before polling, when Income Tax officials raided her home. Nothing, however, was seized. Kanimozhi, who is entering the electoral fray for the first time, has nurtured the constituency using her MP’s Local Area Development funds. Campaigning for Kanimozi was DMK president MK Stalin, her half brother.
This seat was also witness to a larger battle between the DMK, whose supremo M Karunanidhi (Kanimozhi’s father) passed away last year, and the BJP who has allied with ruling party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham. The alliance has field BJP state chief Tamilsai Sundararajan against Kanimozhi.
Despite the BJP being subjected to much ridicule in Tamil social media, Tamilisai earned the respect of even those who ranged against the Sangh Parivar, the ideological fount of the BJP, with her dignified counters. Interestingly, her father, a Congress veteran, Kumari Ananthan, had publicly said that his daughter should lose the election. BJP president Amit Shah campaigned for her.
The IT department has been conducting raids across the country in the past few weeks — in Vellore, large sums of cash have reportedly been seized from the premises of DMK Lok Sabha candidate Kathir Anand, among others, leading to a last minute cancellation of polling in the seat.