High turnout raises hopes of key players

Meawhile, the ruling AIADMK maintains that the good polling indicates its success. Amidst the allegations of the ruling party distributing Rs.6,000 each to most of the voters, the ruling party is happy about the voter turnout crossing the 77 per cent mark. The party functionaries feel that they have succeeded in bringing the party’s traditional voters to the polling booths. There were apprehensions that AIADMK voters would shun the bypoll in the absence of charismatic leaders like MGR and J Jayalalithaa. 

According to AIADMK functionaries, a low polling of around 60 per cent would have meant that only the committed voters of the DMK and its allies had cast their votes and most of the ruling party voters had shunned the elections in the first bypoll after former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s death.

Grassroot work: The ruling party leaders left no stone unturned, to generate enthusiasm among the party’s voters and invoked the name of Jayalalithaa, besides laying stress on the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol. “Bringing the traditional voters to the booth is the toughest part in the bypoll. Once, they enter the booth and see the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol, they will automatically vote for it. They have a special bonding with the symbol for decades and they will not vote for any other symbol,” a party functionary said. 

However, the impact of Jayalalithaa’s video clips released a day after the election campaign ended cannot be underestimated. Although, supporters of Dinakaran underplay its impact in public, they are certain that it would have led to a last hour swing in their favour. Once they had seen the visuals, the counter-arguments put up by the opponents was unlikely to influence the AIADMK’s core voters, they believe firmly. 

The verdict on 2G scam, on polling day, is a shot in the arm for the DMK since its leaders Kanimozhi and A Raja had been acquitted. An unfavourable judgment could have affected the voters’ psyche on polling day. The acquittal is certain to have a positive impact on the neutral voters and the constituency of DMK allies which were hesitant to join hands with DMK in the earlier elections due to the 2G case.