The DMK chief Karunanidhi has been regular in campaigning in Salem and other western districts ever since the DMK has jumped into the poll fray in the 1957 general elections and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party men of the western districts will be missing electioneering by their favorite leader ‘Kalaignar’ Karunanidhi for the first time in six decades.
Salem became a star constituency in the 1957 elections itself, as the DMK has fielded its general secretary V. R. Nedunchezhian at Salem and as DMK was an unregistered party, it was allotted ‘rising sun’ symbol in a majority of the constituencies and other independent symbols in a few other constituencies and Nedunchezhian could not get ‘Rising Sun’ symbol and was allotted ‘Rooster’ (kozhi) symbol.
The Party sources have said that Mr. Karunanidhi had proposed to cover the western region extensively, M.K. Stalin was originally scheduled to campaign only in specific constituencies and to compensate the absence of Mr. Karunanidhi, the party treasurer M.K. Stalin made extensive tour of all the constituencies in both the districts a few days ago.
The local leaders and party men were eagerly waiting for his visit, when they got the news that the DMK has cancelled his tour program for the western region considering Karunanidhi’s advanced age and health and the local DMK workers were pinning their hopes on the campaigning of Mr. Karunanidhi, as the party had lost in all the 17 constituencies in Salem and Namakkal districts in the 2011 Assembly elections.
