CUDDALORE: He is the star among the candidates in fray, but VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, the most popular among the Dalit leaders in the State, may not find it a smooth sail at Kattumannarkoil in Cuddalore, despite it having a sizeable percentage of Dalit electorate.
As Thirumavalavan himself noted during the press conference announcing his candidature in Chennai on Wednesday, he was the leading candidate from this Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha election in 2014. This has enthused his party and its supporters, who are confident of him emerging victorious in this Assembly election. That calculation, however, does not capture the full nuance in an election like this.
Two years ago, VCK, contesting in alliance with DMK, IUML and MMK, garnered 58,294 votes from this segment, while AIADMK came second with 49,604. The third place went to NDA ally PMK, which fielded the wife of a rebel Congress man, KI Maniratnam, a locally-popular businessman. Despite contesting on PMK ticket in this reserved seat, he managed to get 41,118 votes. This time, Maniratnam himself is contesting on Congress ticket as part of the DMK-Congress-IUML-MMK alliance, and he would receive the votes from these parties that had gone to Thirumavalavan in the last election. Also, Maniratnam has built a support base for himself in the constituency by projecting himself as a follower of L Elayaperumal, a veteran Congress leader. “Congress has a significant vote base in Dalit colonies thanks to Elayaperumal,” explained Senthil of Kattumannarkoil.
Another key component is the Muslim votes, majority of which is expected to go to the Congress as both Islamist parties are in its alliance. “There are about 30,000 Muslims voters living at Lalpet, Ayangudi, Yelleri, Reddiyur, Maniyam Aadur, Kollumedu and T Puthur in Kattumannarkoil. Only a few of them will go to Thirumavalavan,” said an elderly Muslim man from Lalpet.
Besides these, there are coalition challenges as well for Thirumavalavan. Contesting in alliance with his partners from PWA, DMDK and TMC, one of the biggest challenges for him will be to ensure that the non-Dalits, who are not favourably inclined to his assertion of the basic rights of the Dalits, would indeed support him. “The PMK candidate, young dentist Anbu Chozhan, is banking on Vanniyar votes. But the cadre may try to consolidate community votes to defeat Thirumavalavan. Also, majority of the voters other than the Vanniyars and Dalit communities support either AIADMK or Congress,” said a resident from Kandamangalam.
The VCK is aware of the challenge. “Thirumavalavan has to put in more efforts to reach out to local heavyweights and farmers,” said a party sympathiser.
VCK Final List Out
VCK on Thursday released its final list of 12 candidates. Party spokesperson K Paavalan (Manamadurai constituency), headquarters secretaries A Balasingam (Tiruvallur), M Thamizhselvan (Vanoor) and Gopinathan alias IlanChe Guevara (Arakonam), and Organising secretary K Govendhan (Harur) were among the candidates.