As Tamil Nadu is inching closer to the crucial assembly poll which is just a week ahead, the state has been witnessing a tight race between ADMK's Coordinator Panneerselvam and PMK Chief Ramadoss in winning their respective communities and their votes in the assembly polls in the albeit of contesting the polls in an alliance. 

The fresh race was triggered by Panneerselvam's statement that had shocked the PMK as it had carried the fire of losing its vote bank in Northern Tamil Nadu. The heated race between both the leaders had also captured the imbalanced alliance and sparked a dispute in the leaders' bid of pacifying the communities. Recently while speaking to an English news agency, Panneerselvam said that the 10.5% internal reservation provided to Vanniyars is temporary.

He further said that the reservation will be finalized based on the final caste-based Census results in Tamil Nadu. He further stated that the quota will be increased or decreased based on the outcome of the caste-based Census. Panneerselvam's statement has come when there were reports suggesting that the ADMK would lose the votes from the other Most-Backward communities over providing reservations for the Vanniyar community. 

While the PMK leaders were shocked by Panneerselvam's statement as the party's voter base is powered by the Vanniyar community and it has to reach for the votes with the permanent reservation, the political observers say that his statement is yet another bid to win the votes from other communities like how he spoke in favor of Sasikala to woo the votes from her Thevar community, which holds one of the larger voter bases in Tamil Nadu. 

The ADMK has been facing outrage from other castes and communities particularly from Southern Tamil Nadu, where Panneerselvam is contesting in the assembly polls. In the last week of February, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami had tabled the bill to provide 10.5% internal reservation to Vanniyars in education and employment opportunities within 20% quota for Most Backward Classes (MBC). The PMK party is running through the voter base from the Vanniyar community and the party had celebrated that it had won the demand of providing reservation for Vanniyars.

The ADMK and PMK leaders have been campaigning in Northern Tamil Nadu through the reservation bill. However, Panneerselvam has now given a big shock to ADMK and PMK by admitting that the reservation bill for Vanniyars is temporary. His statement had troubled PMK as the party has been pitching strongly that the reservation bill for Vanniyars has been adopted permanently and that Vanniyars will get a quota in education and employment. 

As Panneerselvam's statement boiled more tensions in the alliance ahead of the polls, PMK Chief Ramadoss had issued a statement in which he said that the law, which is passed in the assembly, is permanent. PMK's statement has said that people who call the law providing a 10.5% quota to Vanniyars are ignorant about social justice as the quote provided to the Vanniyar community is not a caste issue and it is related to the state's social justice and development. 

PMK further said that if a law is passed in the legislative assembly and assented by the Governor, it is permanent. There is nothing called a 'temporary law' and until another law is passed to replace the current now, this act will prevail. The party's statement added that Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami had said that the law is only the first step and that the quota will be increased based on the result of the caste-based Census that has been announced by the state government. 

In a fight between temporary and permanent, the state has been witnessing a race between Panneerselvam and Ramadoss to woo their respective communities. As the reservation quota for Vanniyars had pushed the ADMK party to face a backlash from other communities including Thevar, Panneerselvam has admitted that the reservation bill is temporary to pacify the Thevar community to win their votes in his constituency. On the other hand, PMK tries to convince the Vanniyar community that the bill is permanent to get their votes. 

In what had become the latest tussle, the race between both the leaders strongly implies that the votes have been put to trade based on castes and the leaders are aiming to buy them by the mouth-based allegiance to them. But, the voters are king in the electoral process and they will be deciding the winner of the race, which will be known on May 2, during which the votes cast on April 6 will be counted and the results will be announced.