Chennai: Notwithstanding their poor performance in previous polls, 1,222 independents are in the fray for the May 8 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu.
Most of the independents enter the fray just to garner attention, even at the cost of forfeiting their deposits, fighting against political bigwigs.
For Veerappan, who has filed his papers in Chepauk to fight against DMK chief M Karunanidhi as well as in Andipatti to challenge AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha, contesting polls is a hobby.
"I have so far contested 109 elections, I want to create a world record," he says. He has not failed to file his papers right from the Presidential elections to important by-polls, whether it was the by-elections to the Chikmangalur Lok Sabha seat against late Indira Gandhi or against Sonia Gandhi at Rae Bareli now.
People never favoured little-known independents in the state. Those who rarely got elected were prominent figures or party rebels. Only two out of 994 independents in 1984, five out of 2,123 in 1989, one each out of 1,771 and 3,857 candidates in 1991 and 1996 respectively and three out of 978 in 2001 polls could step inside the Assembly.
Senior AIADMK leader S Semmalai, after being denied ticket by AIADMK founder late M G Ramachandran, won from Taramangalam in 1980 as an independent with a margin of over 56,000 votes, the biggest one for such a candidate in the state.
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