Pennagaram: This sleepy, backward constituency in Dharmapuri district has become the cynosure of all eyes this elections, thanks to PMK Chief Ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss choosing this “safe” constituency to try his luck to enter the Assembly for the first time.
Always a bastion of Vanniyars, the caste to which Anbumani belongs, Pennagaram overwhelmingly voted in favour of the PMK leader in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. This factor seemed to have weighed high in the minds of PMK top brass when they decided to field him from here.
Since the constituency has returned only a Vanniyar as MLA for the past few decades, almost all political parties, including DMK and AIADMK, have fielded candidates from the dominant community to cash in on the caste sentiments and votes.
To make the PMK leader walk the extra mile, the ruling AIADMK has fielded its strongman K. P. Munusamy and DMK has nominated P. N.P. Inbasekaran, who pushed the then AIADMK candidate to the third slot in 2010 by-elections after the death of his father Periya Annan.
Munusamy’s candidature has raised stakes for AIADMK as he was shifted to Pennagaram from Vepanahalli constituency since the party wants to avenge the PMK, which won the Dharmapuri seat in 2014.
With animosity between dominant Vanniyars and Dalits still visible in this rural constituency, the PMK would apparently cash in on caste sentiments as it did in 2014 elections after the tragic end of love story of Dalit youth Ilavarasan who married a Vanniyar girl Divya.
PMK’s victory in 2014 was largely credited to the party’s aggressive stand on the issue of inter-caste marriages, especially Vanniyars marrying Dalits. However, almost two years into his first stint as Lok Sabha MP, Anbumani seems to have the support of all communities and all sections of society with PMK cadre reaching out to people at the grassroots level by propagating the ‘achievements’ of their leader during his tenure as Union health minister between 2004 and 2009.
The PMK hopes Anbumani’s performance as MP and the party’s manifesto would help it romp home from this district. Locals say the PMK leader has chosen Pennagaram because of the backwardness of this constituency which results in large-scale migration to neighbouring Bangalore.
Sixty-year-old Kanthasamy, a retired school teacher, says he does not see Anbumani as the leader of a particular community. “After he was elected as MP, he has worked for the welfare of all community people.”
R. Sakthivel, (25), a Dalit, says he is drawing a handsome salary today due to the job he secured during a fair organised by the Dharmapuri MP. However, an opinion is that Anbumani chose Pennagaram only because of Vanniyar vote bank and his party’s strong presence in the district. “I feel Anbumani chose this seat as 52 per cent of the total 2.26 lakh electorate belongs to Vanniyar community and only 15 per cent is Dalits,” a retired government servant said.
Locals also say though a majority of Vanniyars would vote for Anbumani, a split in their votes would be inevitable as Munusamy and Inbasekaran also belong to the community.
Other candidates like the sitting CPI MLA N. Nanjappan are also influential enough to split the votes. The AIADMK, DMK, Congress and PMK have won the constituency twice each; Nanjappan had represented the seat in 1989 also.
