Chennai Corner

Grassroots Democracy

During the assembly elections all parties complained that they did not have time enough to campaign although the poll dates were known in advance and everyone should have been prepared. It’s the same complaint this time for the local polls scheduled for October 17 and 19. There will be polling in 10 city corporations, 60 municipalities, 259 town panchayats and 191 village panchayats on October 17. The remaining 65 municipalities, 270 town panchayats and 194 village panchayats will vote on October 19. Electronic voting machines (17,000) will be used for the first time by 4.63 crore voters at 86,104 voting booths. Nearly one lakh cops will be deployed for poll security. The 2006 local polls had seen widespread violence.

The elections will see multi-cornered contests with the Dravidian majors deciding to go alone. The smaller parties like the VCK and PT (Puthiya Thamizhagam) which had hoped to piggyback on the bigger parties have been left to fend for themselves. The MDMK, unlike the other smaller parties, did not even look for an alliance. The left parties had to swallow the humiliation of the AIADMK even contesting the seats they had won last time. After a futile wait, the left is going with Vijayakanth’s DMDK under the banner of the third front.

“Local polls have always favoured the ruling party. Besides, the AIADMK won by a landslide which is an advantage and therefore its decision to contest alone is not surprising,” says D Ravikumar, general secretary of the VCK. But G Nammasivan, spokesperson of the MDMK, argues that “Unlike the assembly elections, the popularity and influence of the candidates play a major role in local body elections, especially in the case of mayor and municipal chairmen posts, for which direct elections are held.”

A Test For Amma

Rattled by reports that the ruling party might suffer a setback thanks to the police firing at Paramakudi last month that led to seven Dalits dying, the general feeling in the south that only thevars (the dominant caste in the south) will prosper when the AIADMK comes to power and the renewed protests against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), CM Jayalalitha has decided to hit the campaign trail for three days, covering all the 10 corporations in the state. The Paramakudi firing and her later justification for it have put her at odds with the sizeable Dalit population in the south.

What has not helped her party is the campaign unleashed by the Puthiya Thamizhagam which has pockets of influence among the Dalits in the south. The PT’s premise is that there was no “visible change” in the AIADMK rule and that Jayalalitha is “trying to shield police officers involved in the Paramakudi incident.” Jayalalitha is wary of the PT because it has turned virulent after breaking its alliance with the AIADMK that was forged for the assembly elections. The PT had won two assembly seats including for its founder Dr K Krishnaswamy. The latter has led the charge against her saying “we don’t have faith in the judicial probe ordered by the government into the firing incident.”

Jayalalitha’s other headache is the indefinite fast at KKNPP that has resumed again on the weekend. The fast begun by 127 persons (and relay fast by hundreds of others) on September 11 at Idinthakarai village was called off after 12 days following a cabinet resolution that the government will appeal to the PM to suspend work at the plant to allay their fears. However, the protestors have rejected the PM’s assurance that the plant will be safe and that it was necessary for development. They have resumed the agitation 10 days after they called it off. They want the whole project scrapped and even stopped contract workers going into the plant this week. Jayalalitha’s problem is that she has been making assurances all around that the precarious power situation in the state will ease and for that she needs the KKNPP to be commissioned (which it would have been by December had the agitation not started). Jayalalitha hopes to get the protestors on board during her campaign.

While for the DMK, the local body elections outline an opportunity to shake off the dejection among its leadership and cadre after the ignominious defeat in the assembly elections. Its patriarch, M Karunanidhi, will campaign in Chennai because that’s a corporation the DMK wants to hang onto. “For us Chennai is the most prestigious corporation but there are some internal problems. The campaign by Thalaivar (Karunanidhi) and Thalapathi (Stalin) will help us,” says a DMK MLA.

As for the Congress, it’s the same divided house and although TNCC president, K.V. Thangabalu resigned five months ago, he has not been replaced. He is now attacking former alliance partner, the DMK, after seven years of contesting local, parliamentary and assembly elections together. H. Vasanthkumar, who had earlier contested for the mayor’s post, admits: “We have not won the Mayor’s post in any municipal corporation in the past decade without an alliance.” The Congress’ claim that it has 12 per cent vote-share in the state will be put to test this time.

Vaiko's Back

He was missing in action after boycotting the assembly elections. Vaiko, who founded the MDMK after walking out of the DMK, had opted out because he felt that his alliance partner for the last few elections, AIADMK, was not fair to his party during seat-sharing talks. Now he is making up for lost time and his furious campaign has energized his cadre.

Vaiko hopes that his ongoing battle to get the death sentence of Rajiv Gandhi killers — Perarivalavan, Santhan and Murugan — commuted to life will resonate with the voters. During his campaign, he is also distributing handwritten letters outlining the MDMK’s contribution in protecting Tamil interests for the last 18 years — his protests on attacks on fishermen by the Sri Lankan defence forces, his campaign to interlink rivers, his protest against the divesting of Neyyvelli Lignite Corporation, etc. The fact that all parties will go alone is going to help the MDMK, he feels. As a leader said, “We may not win a sizeable number of seats, but a decent vote percentage will help us strategise for the future.”

How Well Do You Know Your Candidate?

The interface in these local polls between a candidate and a voter is more up close and personal than in assembly and parliamentary polls. And this time candidates will have new areas to cover since the delimitation.

The mayoral candidate for Chennai will literally have a humongous problem. Since the last election, this metropolis has become a megalopolis — expanded from 175 sq kms to 424 sq kms. Most wards that fall in the heart of the city have seen about 20,000 voters added. In other words, wards have grown from 15,000-20,000 to 30,000-35,000 voters. Mayor Subramaniam, the incumbent who is trying his luck again, confesses, “I don’t know how to reach all the 44 lakh voters. I plan to stay overnight in distant places so I can cover all the 200 wards.”

In the intense battle for Chennai, there are 32 mayoral candidates in the fray including Saidai Duraiswami (AIADMK), Saidai Ravi (Congress), G. Velmurugan (DMDK) and A. K. Moorthy (PMK). But this is going to be a contest mostly between the incumbent mayor and AIADMK’s Duraiswamy. The latter has a point to prove after losing narrowly to Stalin in the assembly elections. In fact, so narrowly that Duraiswami has gone to court to contest Stalin’s victory.

Duraiswami is hoping that his popularity through his Manida Neyam Trust that coaches IAS aspirants will see him through. In fact he is already a hit on Facebook with some even calling him a future mayor of Chennai. One wall writing on his Facebook page says, “Impeccable is the word to describe Saidai Duraiswami. With huge potential comes greater responsibility and people have confidence that he will make Chennai the best city in the world.” And he has 821 friends. Subramaniam has 519 friends. The shape of things to come?

The Doosra

Among the mayoral candidates are Sarath Babu, an IIM graduate who runs Foodking Catering Services, an RTI crusader V. Gopalkrishnan, a Human Rights activist R. K. Ravichandran and a software professional E. Sridharan who was persuaded to throw his hat in the ring by the T’Nagar Residents Welfare Association.

Sarath Babu who tried his luck in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll and the recent assembly poll but lost, hopes to make a mark this time. Sarath Babu is popular with the young crowd and therefore he’s communicating on Facebook and has 32,658 fans. The rest he picks up, when dressed in his corporate garb (and not the average politicians’s gear of veshti and shirt), he does the rounds of colleges, IT parks and other places where the young hang out. He says, “During the previous election, I hardly had any volunteers. This time there is a dedicated team handling on-ground activities while another takes care of social networking and other media publicity.”

The man who spurred other mainstream candidates to take to Facebook as a media tool, says, “This is the only way to bring youth into politics and break the hold of parties.” And for the pessimists, he has this message, “We were third in the assembly polls and how ever many times we will keep contesting till we win and make a change. If Abraham Licoln can try eight times, so can we!”

Gopalkrishnan, an engineer, left his lucrative job to work in his sister’s shop selling mobiles so he would have time for his RTI work that he feels helps society. Then there is Sounderarajan who had received a special medal at the cycling championships held by the International Paralympic Committee in Germany in 2002. Now he hopes to cycle into the hearts of 44 lakh voters to become mayor of Chennai. “I want to provide an alternative to Chennaites to elect a commoner as a mayor,” says the youth from Tirunelveli, who is now a Chennai resident. “If I get elected, I will transform Chennai and make it the number one city in the country, he says.

Superstitious Politicians

Politicians are the most superstitious of them all. Many politicians are gathering at Salem for poo parthal in which they get to know their prospects. Flowers are kept on the head of the deity at the Perumal tank and depending on the colour of the flower that falls first, decisions are taken. For instance, if a red flower falls first, the candidate can be sure of winning but if a white flower falls, he or she may as well save their fee! The other test is which side of the deity the flower falls — right means victory and left means loss. Priest V. Ramesh says, “Since the announcement of the local body elections, dozens of politicians have made a beeline here.”

No Voting, Just Bidding

Democracy does not wash in this village, because elections lead to tension in the village where caste disputes are always simmering below the service. So village elders in Sathangudi panchayat in Tirumangalam union near Madurai have decided that the two dominant castes in the village will be panchayat president by turns while the other candidates will be elected. This time the elders decided to allot the seat to a woman and have elected Pechiammal after she reportedly paid Rs 15 lakh towards the common village, community development and temple funds. There was an auction and Pechiammal came up with the huge amount,” says S. Jagannathan, husband of outgoing president, J. Sarojini. He adds that even the panchayat union councillor’s post was auctioned for Rs 3 lakh and D Sivajyoti won that bid. Jagannathan has now petitioned officials to stop the two women from taking over and also to take action against the “katta” panchayat which decided this.

While the village claims it has hit on this formula to prevent tension, it was a tense situation at Inam Seriyalur and Zamin Seriyalur in Pudukkotai district after it was revealed that the post of panchayat president in the two villages were going to be auctioned for Rs 15 lakh and Rs 16 lakh respectively. Even here the decision to auction was reportedly taken by village elders.

Cash Counters Are Ringing

The announcement of the polls has been lucrative for many municipalities. Since candidates need no-due certificates or their candidature will be cancelled, they have been queuing up to pay their arrears. Thus the local bodies of Pallavaram, Chromepet, Tambaram, Marimalainagar have collected Rs 2 crores in arrears of commercial tax, property tax, water tax and vacant land tax over the last one week. Political parties too have got richer collecting money for forms from aspirants.