Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Namesakes worry candidates

COIMBATORE: What is in a name? The answer may be around 7,000 votes.

And who better to vouch for this than K. Dinakaran, an independent candidate contesting the Sulur Assembly constituency. He had polled more than 7,200 votes. He was a namesake of K. Dinakaran of the Desiya Murpokku Dravidar Kazhagam (DMDK) who polled more than 88,000 votes to emerge winner.

This phenomenon was not just unique to the Assembly constituency alone. In Coimbatore District, many namesakes contested. Political observers say this was to create confusion among the voters. In a few places, the namesake factor worked and in most others, it did not.

The battle of the ballots this time witnessed a substantial increase in number of candidates with identical names causing concern to the nominees of the two major fronts.

In Thondamuthur, M.N. Kandasamy of the Congress had to battle not just his rival from the AIADMK but also two of his namesakes. There was a K. Kandasamy and an A. Kandasamy. Contesting as independents, the two together polled around 700 votes. Their total was nowhere near the Congress candidate's 46,000 and odd votes.

In Coimbatore South, DMK's Pongalur N. Palanisamy, a popular political figure in the region who polled more than 52,000 votes, had Pogalur S. Palanisamy who walked away with 251 votes.

In Valparai, predominantly a hilly constituency populated with tribes, there were two M. Arumugam's in the fray. One belonged to the Communist Party of India and polled over 61,000 votes. The other managed with around 700 votes. In Krishnarayapuram (Reserved) constituency (Karur district) voters had two Kamarajs in the fray. And, none was from the Congress. S. Kamaraj of AIADMK who was fighting with his direct and nearest rival P. Kamaraj of the DMK who polled 60,291 votes. A politician in Coimbatore says namesakes filed nominations and later withdrew following “negotiations”. But very rarely did they make it to the ballot sheet. Interestingly, in Coimbatore, many namesakes made it to the polling stage.

In Athoor of Dindigul district, S. Balasubramani of DMDK and S. Balasubramani, an Independent were in the fray. The DMDK candidate lost to I. Periyasamy of the DMK.

In Vedasandur, there was S. Palanichamy of AIADMK and M. Palanichamy of the BSP. The AIADMK candidate won by a margin over 50, 000 votes. In Manamadurai in Sivaganga District, there was M. Gunasekaran of AIADMK and K. Gunasekaran, an Independent. The AIADMK candidate won.

In Bodinayackanur in Theni, DMK's S. Lakshmanan had an opponent in independent candidate V. Lakshmanan.

In Nagercoil, there were two Maheshs with same initials, one from the DMK and the other an independent. Likewise, there were two Sureshs. S. Suresh was a BSP candidate and R. Suresh was fielded by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha. In Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli, the Assembly speaker R. Avudaiyappan was challenged by S. Avudaiyappan and both lost.

(With inputs from Madurai and Tiruchirapalli Bureaux).

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