Chennai, April 4: The hustle and bustle of the high octane campaign for the single-phase polling for the April six Assembly elections and the bypoll to Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu, came to a close at 1900 hrs on Sunday.

The elections will witness a five-cornered contest with the

fronts headed by the traditional Dravidian rivals, the ruling

AIADMK and the Opposition DMK, vying with each other to win

the confidence of the voters, apart from the Makkal Needhi

Maiam (MNM) of actor-politician Kamal Haasan, ousted AIADMK

leader and late leader J Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala’s

nephew TTV Dhinakaran and actor-director Seeman’s Naam

Tamizhar Katchi in the fray.

Though it appeared a five-cornered contest on paper, it will

once again be a two-horse race, with the main fight between

the AIADMK and the DMK.

This election is very crucial for both the AIADMK and DMK as

they are facing the voters in the absence of two tall leaders

and late Chief Ministers J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi

respectively.

While AIADMK is eyeing for a hat-trick of wins, having won

in 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls, the DMK, which on its own

is claiming to be banking on the anti-incumbency factor, is

desperate to come back to power after being in the Opposition

for ten years, in what is billed as a no-holds-barred contest.

While a total of 3,998 candidates are in the fray for the

234-Assembly seats to elect the 16th Assembly, for the

Kanyakumari bypoll, which was necessitated following

the death of Congress MP H Vasanthakumar, a total of

12 candidates are in the fray.

The Lok Sabha bypoll will witness a direct fight between

former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan of BJP and

Vasanthakumar’s son Vijay Vasanth of Congress.

The BJP is facing the polls as part of the AIADMK alliance

and the Congress as an ally of the Opposition DMK. (UNI)