Tamil Nadu   

Non-allotment of symbol puts DMDK in a spot

Special Correspondent

Cadres find it tough to convince voters during door-to-door campaigning

TIRUCHI: The Desiya Murpoku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) is too new for its political prospects to be sabotaged by factionalism.

Senior functionaries admit tongue-in-cheek that they are surprised by the popularity of the fledgling party. But one thing threatens to affect the hard work of party cadres: without any official symbol, they find it difficult to convince the voters during door-to-door campaigning. "We have a strong cadre base of youth and a good network of party units. We are campaigning earnestly to match the major fronts. But the non-allotment of symbol is hampering our work," laments A. D. Senthureswaran, party's candidate for Tiruchi-II.

The DMDK cadres are sore the symbol would be allotted only after the filing of nominations get over. "We have lost a good number of days. We have almost covered the entire constituency, and we have planned to go on another round to meet the voters after the symbol is allotted," said a functionary.

"Being a new party, we have to do extra work to popularise our candidates. The absence of symbol is proving a big handicap, and we will have to bring all our might together to popularise the new symbol in the next fortnight." Symbol is crucial for the parties to mobilise support, particularly in semi-urban and rural areas. Every publicity material of parties and candidates issued during the polls invariably carry the symbol. Even well-established parties strive to popularise their symbols.

When the two factions of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam merged, their priority was for regaining the Two Leaves symbol. When the now-defunct Tamil Maanila Congress came into being and faced the elections in 1996, it went out of the way to popularise its symbol, Bicycle, taking the help of the fans of film star Rajinikant.

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