The election commission announcing the schedule for 4 states and 1 Union territory a couple of days ago intensified political activity in those 4 states and UT. As per the schedule announced by EC, assembly elections in Tamil Nadu will be held in single phases on April 6th. The fate of the political parties will be out on May 2nd when the counting happens.
Kamal’s 3rd front: Who’s all with him?
While the traditional parties like ADMK and DMK are allying with BJP and Congress respectively, the smaller parties are coming to form 3rd front in the captaincy of Kamal Hassan this time. Kamal Hassan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam so far didn’t register any victory in the polls and the party doesn’t even have a presence at the grass root levels. But some parties are evincing interest to ally with him.
Actor Sarath Kumar, who is known to the Telugu audience from movies like Gang leader, Bunny and Kanchana etc runs a party named All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK). Recently Kamal Haasan and actor Sarath Kumar held talks and agreed to go together in the polls. Sarath Kumar’s AISMK has been allying with AIADMK and Sarath Kumar won an MLA seat from Tenkasi in 2011. This time he stated that AIADMK leaders did not invite him for alliance and so he is moving out.
There is another small party named Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK). The leader of this party -TR Paarivendhar earlier contested and won on the DMK party symbol but parted ways owing to personal differences with the DMK leaders.
Kamal Hassan also tied up with Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, an NGO that was started in 2013 to fight against corruption.
There was a question posed by reporters to Sarath Kumar about TTV Dinakaran and Sasikala joining hands with this third front. Sarath Kumar didn’t answer the question directly. However, if Kamal joins hands with Dinakaran’s AMMK, all the ideologies and anti-corruption slogans Kamal and his team raising will be trolled.
What are the prospects of this 3rd front:
To be frank, the prospects of 3rd party or 3rd front in any election, in any region of India, has been very dismal. Except in some exceptional scenarios, 3rd fronts have always failed. When Vijay Kanth’s DMDK, garnered 8.5% votes in the 2006 elections, people, as well as analysts, thought that the third front could really become decisive in future if Vijaykanth plays cards correctly. But Vijaykanth proved them all wrong in the 2016 elections.
Now Kamal Hassan’s 3rd front is not even getting much attention from media as well as people, not only because his party doesn’t have a cadre or structure but also because of the utter failure of the 3rd front in previous elections.
Moreover, Kamal Hassan was never a mass hero or a leader. His intellectual rants are either ignored or objected to by the masses. His comments against religion abhorred by a section of the people. It is to be noted that the media gave a good share of screen time for his party during the 2019 LS elections and despite that his party failed miserably. Because of all these reasons, Kamal’s third front is not at all taken seriously by the people of Tamil Nadu.
Overall:
It looks like this 2021 TN election also will be a battle between the ‘Two leaves’ and ‘Rising Sun’ once again and the third front or any other political party will be playing a less significant role.
-ZURAN
