The ruling AIADMK has fielded Parithi Ilamvazhuthi to contest from Egmore Assembly constituency. A good platform speaker, Parithi always enjoyed laurels from his political mentor M. Karunanidhi. After his maiden defeat in 2011 Assembly polls, the former minister shifted loyalty to the AIADMK after falling out with DMK leader M.K. Stalin.
Starting from his school days, he was actively involved in politics and has always contested from a reserve constituency located within Chennai.
Strength: The dalit politician is popular face in Egmore and familiar with voters in slum pockets. He has been elected to the legislative assembly for a total of six times and was an MLA for a continuous period of 28 years. His contacts are such that some of his old friends in DMK cutting across party lines are silently campaigning for Parithi.
Weakness: He has always been a dalit face of DMK and aged voters who relate to him are still with the DMK. He has to overcome the factional feud with AIADMK functionaries. Remember he lost the previous polls to DMDK’s K. Nallathambi by a margin of 200 votes due to infighting in the DMK. And in 2001 he won by a margin of 86 votes against AIADMK candidate John Pandian.
X - factor: The relatively smaller constituency has a consolidate population of non Tamil voters settled from Rajasthan and Gujarat. Polarization of minority votes also counts for a diversified constituency like Egmore.
(Compiled by C.S. Kotteswaran)
