Close fight between contestants in Karaikal

Pondicherry, Apr 28 (UNI) It will be a close fight between the DMK and AIADMK in the Karaikal constituency of the Union Territory with the caste factor expected to play a dominant role in the May eight assembly elections.

Muslims and Vellala Pillais, a forward community, form a major chunk of the total population in Karaikal, where former minister A M H Nazeem of the DMK, belonging to the Muslim community is pitted against the AIADMK candidate S Selvaganapathy, a Vellala Pillai.

The absence of his arch rival S Ramaswami, who headed the AIADMK Government here in 1974 and 1977 from the electoral arena is a matter of relaxation for Mr Nazeem.

Mr Ramswami kept away from contest this time, as it was a sitting seat of the DMK, as per the seat sharing agreement, after the formation of the Democratic Progressive alliance(DPA).

Mr Nazeem, who entered the fray in 1991, held the constituency thrice and was the PWD Minister in the Janakiraman Cabinet in 1996.

The DMK camp is confident that he would emerge successful, garnering majority of the Muslim votes. Mr Nazeem is least concerned about the presence of another Muslim candidate A J Assana in the fray.

Mr Assana, who contested on AIADMK ticket in the last election, was the main contestant against Mr Nazeem and finished second.

Since he was not given ticket by the AIADMK, Mr Assana jumped into the fray as an AIADMK rebel candidate, contesting as an independent.

Mr Nazeem said the presence of Mr Assana will split the AIADMK votes, which will be an advantage to his party.

However, the victory of any candidate depends upon the voting pattern of the key players, the Muslims and the Vellala Pillais on the polling day.

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