MNM candidates back to usual work after LS polls

Chennai, April 20 (IANS) After days of hectic electioneering, it is business as usual for some contestants in the Lok Sabha elections belonging to Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party.

Polling for 38 out of 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu ended on April 18.

However, one MNM candidate said the feeling was like that of a student who had prepared hard for his annual exams and feeling empty the next day after the exams got over.

But all of them agreed that it was a great and unforgettable experience.

"The body is tired. After being very busy in electioneering for a month, there is sort of an empty feeling. I feel like a student who had prepared hard for his annual exams for a month and not knowing what to do once the exams are over," J. Ebenezer of MNM, who contested for the Kanniyakumari seat, told IANS.

Extending the student analogy to the question about his winning prospects he said: "What will a student say when someone asks how he had performed in the exams? The answer will be - have done well and will pass or score high marks. Similarly, I feel I have done well. The response to our party from the people was good."

According to him, a large number of voter names were missing from the electoral list which was not detected earlier by the poll-experienced political parties.

"It is back to business. I will now take care of my civil services training academy. The electioneering was a great experience," R. Rangarajan, MNM candidate for Chennai South, told IANS.

He expressed his disappointment at the low voter turnover in Chennai South.

The Chennai South constituency secured the dubious distinction of polling just 56.41 per cent votes -- the lowest in Tamil Nadu. The state as a whole logged a polling of about 72 per cent.

Similarly, MNM's candidate for Pollachi Lok Sabha seat R. Mookambika told IANS that the election experience and the people's response was good.

"It was a good learning experience. Now I have to look after my family," Mookambika said.

According to political analyst Raveendhran Dhuraiswamy, MNM would have gained good traction from the start if its founder Kamal Haasan had clearly positioned the party as a third alternative to the two major fronts led by AIADMK and DMK.

Dhuraiswamy said Haasan positioned MNM as the third alternative in a concrete manner only during the fag end of the campaign.