Slow starter in TN, AAP may still change the game

This time, elections in Tamil Nadu, will be different from just being a AIADMK-DMK fight. While the Congress is going alone in the state, the BJP has cobbled up a five-party alliance of regional parties. The entry of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has made it a five-corner contest in many seats.

The AAP, after its success in Delhi, has gone pan India and is contesting 434 Lok Sabha seats. In Tamil Nadu it is contesting 24 of the 39 seats.

AAP has many positives to its campaign — candidates with a clean background, a vehement stand against corruption and above all, no tall promises.

AAP leaders are upbeat about the reaction the party has been receiving.

“I am encouraged by the large number of volunteers who have joined this movement,” Yogendra Yadav told Hindustan Times during a fundraiser dinner in Chennai. AAP was slow to begin its campaign in the state. David Barunkumar, AAP’s convenor in the state, agrees: “In Tamil Nadu, we took some time in the selection of candidates and so the time left for campaigning was very short.”

AAP has fielded candidates against A Raja in the Nilgiris and against Dayanidhi Maran in central Chennai.

“If people have two corrupt parties to choose from, corruption does not become an issue. That is why the DMK and the AIADMK have gone about doing what they do all these years,” Yadav said.

Given this, AAP is not really a factor in Tamil Nadu in 2014. However, AAP could upset the chances of the top contender in a few constituencies.