O. Panneerselvam, Thanga Tamil Selvan and Muthusamy, the three heavyweight candidates fighting for the Bodinayakkanur Assembly constituency, seem to have one thing in common. All three were staunch Jayalalithaa loyalists. If Panneerselvam warmed the chief minister’s chair when Jayalalithaa was in legal troubles, Tamil Selvan resigned his MLA seat for her to contest and Muthusamy fought for her victory. A few kilometres from Periyakulam, in the Theni Parliamentary constituency, Bodi is one of the Assembly constituencies witnessing an interesting fight, where the three ‘Amma loyalists’ sweat it out in sweltering heat to gain supremacy in the region.
Panneerselvam, a stop-gap chief minister and currently deputy to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, is seeking re-election from Bodi for the third consecutive time, after Jayalalithaa moved him from his own Periyakulam to Bodi in 2011. And Thanga Tamil Selvan—who in 2001 vacated his MLA seat from Andipatti to pave way for Jayalalithaa to contest the bypolls then—is fighting him on a DMK ticket.
Tamil Selvan switched sides from the AIADMK to T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s AMMK, when Palaniswami sidelined him. He later moved to the DMK after he lost to Panneerselvam’s son in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Theni. Even in AIADMK, the rivalry between Panneerselvam and Selvan was obvious, and the two never saw eye to eye. And fighting them is M. Muthusamy from the AMMK, a staunch Jayalalithaa loyalist once, but a V.K. Sasikala supporter now. Other than the three big names, P. Ganesh Kumar from Kamal Hassan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam and M. Prem Chandar from Seeman’s Naam Thamilar Katchi are also in the fray.
Interestingly, Bodi is one of the Assembly segments in the Theni Parliamentary constituency, which is considered a bastion of Panneerselvam. In fact during the Lok Sabha polls, this was the only Assembly segment in the entire Tamil Nadu, which helped the AIADMK win. While Panneerselvam has put all his might to fight his old rival, adding to his trouble is the double anti-incumbency and AIADMK’s alliance with the BJP.
But most worrying for the AIADMK is the anger against the 10 5 per cent internal reservation to the Vanniyar community. As a district dominated by the Kallars and Maravars, from the dominant Mukkulthor community in the south and also the Naidus, Theni usually is unique when it comes to electoral battles. The Vanniyar quota bill, which was passed in the Assembly minutes before the election date was announced, is the one big issue in Bodi haunting Panneerselvam. Sources in the AIADMK say that the bill was passed just to help Palaniswami win from his own Vanniyar-dominated Edappadi constituency. Incidentally, Palaniswami is a Gounder, a dominant caste in west Tamil Nadu.
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In the past two weeks during his campaign in Bodi, Panneerselvam consciously tells the voters that the quota is only “temporary” and is subject to change after the caste-wise census. Combined with the quota bill is the anti-incumbency against the AIADMK government and the “corruption” charge put against him by his long-time rival, Thanga Tamil Selvan. Fighting on the DMK’s ‘rising sun’ symbol, Tamil Selvan says, “his [Panneerselvam’s] son might have won from Theni. But the people are angry with OPS, as he and family have flourished. He has done nothing for the people of this constituency.” Selvan now has sympathisers in the AIADMK, who would crossvote in addition to the DMK votes in the constituency. Bodi was once represented by Lakshmanan from the DMK.
Against the two is M. Muthusamy, from the Naidu community in the region, who is expected to play the spoil-sport. But it is to be seen whether he will spoil the prospects of Panneerselvam or Tamil Selvan.
