Auto driver to MLA? Lens on TVK Vijay Damu’s story after affidavit reveals ‘anomaly’
The TVK candidate was hailed for his humble roots, but his affidavit shows he owns Innova and bikes, raising questions on his “auto driver” image
TVK’s Royapuram candidate Vijay Damu’s inspiring story of rising from humble beginnings as an auto driver to an MLA went viral on Monday (May 4) as the Tamil Nadu election results came in.
However, now he is under the scanner of netizens, as his election affidavit has gone viral online, showing that he does not even own an auto-rickshaw. Instead, he owns an Innova car and two motorcycles, prompting many to question his “humble” origins.
Also read | How Vijay glided effortlessly from Kodambakkam to Fort St George
Some have also flagged that the election affidavit does not suggest in any manner that he comes from a distressed background.
These issues come even as Vijay is struggling to show the numbers required to form the government in the state. Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Arlekar insists on seeing proof of support from 118 MLAs before giving his green signal.
Some have raised questions about Vijay Damu's "humble" background after taking a look at his election affidavit.
What affidavit says
Media reports, including The Federal’s, clearly mentioned that Damu is “a former auto driver” with no political pedigree or financial muscle.
In his election affidavit, he listed his profession as “auto consulting business” and declared total assets of Rs 28.9 lakh with zero liabilities. "Auto driver" is not his current profession.
By his own declaration, Damu comes from a lower-middle-class family with no political connections and has studied till Class 8.
Damu defeated two political heavyweights — veteran AIADMK leader and former state minister D Jayakumar and DMK’s Dr A Subair Khan, son of former minister Rahman Khan.
Other concerns
Damu's affidavit is not the only one raising concerns. An analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms suggests that 92 of the party’s 231 analysed candidates had self-declared criminal cases. Also, 43 had declared serious criminal cases.
This means 40 per cent of TVK candidates have criminal cases, and 19 have serious criminal cases, according to the ADR-Tamil Nadu Election Watch report.
While rival parties DMK and AIADMK have similar numbers, if not more worrying ones, the TVK MLAs are under the scanner because Vijay had taken the political plunge claiming to clean up the system.
Unconfirmed reports also claim that some of the TVK candidates did not fully declare past FIRs filed against them. If true, this could potentially lead to their disqaualification as MLAs at a later stage.