Left eyes huge win in DMK bastion

Delimitation, union votes expected to tilt balance

However, the 2009 Lok Sabha polls finds both parties on the opposite sides of the political fence. Naturally, both contesting candidates are claiming that the 2004 polls was “a victory for our party only and the other benefited by being our ally”!

Most neglected

Chennai North, the most neglected among the three Chennai constituencies,  presently comprises the assembly segments of Royapuram, Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar, Thiru V K Nagar (reserved) Thiruvottriyur, Kolathur and Perambur. North used to have the maximum number of voters in the State, (over 20 lakh voters) but now has the voter size of a normal constituency following the shifting of Harbour and Villivakkam to Central Chennai during the de-limitation process.

Kuppusami scored his fourth electoral win in this traditional DMK bastion in 2004 over K N Sukumaran Nambiar of the BJP. Of the nine Parliamentary polls since 1977, DMK has won seven of them. With history on the side of his party, DMK candidate T K S Elangovan, the party’s organising secretary, believes that the election will turn out to be a cakewalk for him. “The schemes of Re 1 per kg rice and other welfare measures initiated by the CM clearly give me an edge. Moreover, the trade union of the DMK is No1 in the State,” he declares. However, ground reality appears otherwise and the poll is slated to bring the 77-year-old veteran trade union leader of the CPI, T Pandian, out of political oblivion. Areas like Ambattur, Madhavaram and Puzhal, strong DMK bases, have disappeared from North Chennai post-delimitation.

Known-unknown

Again, while Elangovan is a relatively unknown face to voters, Pandian is a household name here.  The State Secretary of the CPI, he had contested on the hand symbol in 1989 and 1991 and won both the times. He also undertook a fast-unto-death in 1992 and succeeded in getting permanency to the posts of 58 temporary port workers.
However, he lost here in 1996 and has not taken part in any major election since then. Big concerns like Chennai Petrochemical Corporation Limited, Ashok Leyland, Ennore Foundries and MRF are based here and the Left banks on votes of most of their labourers. The fisherfolk of Royapuram and Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar have always backed the AIADMK.

“Our coalition is a powerful, mighty combination this time and I can give you a more than 100 per cent assurance that we will win,” he says.

“The working class will back the CPI only as it is only the Left that bothers about our section,” says a voter at Thiru V K Nagar, Manickam. The Tamil Eelam issue and Jayalalithaa’s strong backing of a separate homeland for Tamils has found favour with a few voters, like Kannan and his relatives.

Speaking on behalf of autodrivers, Murali says, “The DMK gave us permit to run autos recently. We used to pay Rs 70,000 to get it earlier. All of us want to showour gratitude by voting for it.”