Madurai: Compared to the rest of Tamil Nadu, the polling pattern has been different in the southern districts where blind faith in political parties, strong caste affiliations and loyalty to charismatic leaders have been more pronounced.
Even in the historic sweep by the DMK in the1967 Assembly election setting a new discourse in state politics in defeating the Congress, including K. Kamaraj, many constituencies in the southern districts, particularly in Kanyakumari districts, the results were different as five of the seven seats still went to the Congress. Besides, three seats in Thoothukudi, two in Tirunelveli and a few seats in then Madurai district, which included the present Theni region, bucked the trend, standing by the Kamaraj-led party.
Despite 49 years of rule by Dravidian parities, voters in three assembly constituencies of Colachel, Thiruvattar, Valavancode in Kanyakumari district, Srivaikuntam in Thoothukudi and Radhapuram and Tenkasi in Tirunelveli district still elect only Congress candidates to the state assembly. The voters mostly belong to Nadar community and most of the candidates too are from the community. But then the affiliation to the Congress party is the real clincher as .S Vijayadharani, an outsider from Chennai, was elected from Vilavancode constituency in 2011.
There have been instances of candidates endearing themselves to the voters and so making little difference to which parties they belonged to at election time. Like the late Congress leader A.S. Ponnammal won four elections from Nilakottai, but when she did not contest, the constituency went to other parties. Ponnamal’s debut was as an independent candidate in 1980 when she defeated Manivasagam A from DMK with a thumping margin of 18,800 votes.
Similarly, constituencies in the southern districts have been much sought after by prominent politicians to enter the Assembly. M G Ramachandran first contested from Aruppukkottai constituency in Virudhunagar district. He was elected from Madurai West constituency in 1980 and when he was suffering from serious illness he still won the election from Andipatti constituency in 1984 from Theni district. In the process, MGR created blind followers in Theni, Ramanathapuram, Madurai, and also in few constituencies in Dindigul and Sivaganga. And most of the members of Mukkulathor communities from the Forward Bloc of India, who have a sizeable presence in these districts, joined the AIADMK. Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who was also elected three times to the state assembly while contesting from Bodinayakkanur and twice from Andipatti constituency, consolidated the party base in the south after the demise of MGR in 1989.
Appealing to voters on caste lines is very pronounced in the south.
Recently, the AIADMK minister Sellur K. Raju, while addressing the party meeting at Madurai on March 13, openly asked the cadres to get the caste particulars of the voters. Political parties are known to nominate candidates after assessing the caste composition in each constituency. A striking example is Usilampatti in Madurai district where the voters would vote only for the 'Standing Lion’ symbol in honour of the FBI leader Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar from Ramanathapuram district. Of the 13 assembly elections held since 1957 in the constituency, the candidates won under ‘Standing Lion’ symbol eight times under FBI and twice as independent candidate from the same community. “In the 1991 election, our candidate Vallarasu lost by 5,000 votes because we couldn’t get the ‘Standing Lion’ symbol,” said a senior functionary of the party.
Similarly, in Oddanchatram constituency in Dindigul district, candidates from Gounder community have won most of the elections since 1952 with sitting DMK MLA R Sakkarapani from DMK winning four times consecutively since 1996. In Melur constituency, the AIADMK sitting MLA R Swamy, from the Kallar community, has been elected three times now. Though the Muthuraiyar community has strong presence in Melur (staunch supporters of Congress), Swamy skillfully wooed them to his side after the death of their community head KVV Rajamanickam, who won the seat for the Congress thrice.
Even in the case of a charismatic leader like KKSSR Ramachandran, he won most elections from the Sattur constituency which is dominated by the Telugu speaking communities (Reddy and Chettair). After delimitation, when he contested from Aruppukkottai in 2011 election, he was defeated by AIADMK candidate Vaigaichelvan, who also belongs to Telugu speaking community.
This phenomenon was also witnessed in Communist dominated constituency like Kovilpatti in recent years where even though CPI candidates got elected in many elections, they all belonged to Naidu or Naicker community. Similarly, sitting CPI MLA Gunasekaran from Sivaganga constituency managed to win the election twice in succession due to the strong presence of his community. The same trend can also be witnessed in many constituencies in Madurai, Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts.
The caste influence in politics in South also acts as a barrier for the political aspirations of the fishermen community in Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram districts. Only twice, in the 1967 and 1996 elections, did DMK candidates E Fernando and S Jennifer Chandran, from the fishermen community, could win in the Tiruchendur constituency.
The voters in the South also assess their candidates based on their charisma. A seasoned politician like Thamaraikani had won the election at Rajapalayam as AIADMK candidates three times and also as independent candidate in 1991 when the party denied him the ticket. Similarly, the sitting CPM MLA Balabarathi won the Dindigul constituency; DMK sitting MLA I.Periasamy four times from Athoor; AIADMK Minister R Viswanathan from Natham; sitting MLA Anitha R Radhakrishnan three times both as the DMK and AIADMK candidate; Appavu M three times as Congress candidate, DMK and independent candidate in Radhapuram; Kumari Ananthan under Congress and its faction group in erstwhile Sattangulam constituency.
