TIRUNELVELI: V Narayanan of the ruling AIADMK and Ruby Manoharan of the Congress, fielded by DMK alliance, are in a neck-and-neck battle to win the Nanguneri assembly seat. Narayanan, the district joint secretary of MGR Mandram, was a surprise pick from the AIADMK. He was elected vice-president of the Reddiarpatti panchayat for two consecutive terms beginning 2001. Like, his opponent Manoharan, he belongs to the Nadar community, to which 20% of voters here belong. Manoharan, who is fighting the ‘outsider’ tag, is a well-known businessman from Chennai who served 15 years in the Indian Air Force.
While, Narayanan is expected to benefit from a strong campaign by the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Manoharan is counting on the Congress’ traditional votebank. Nanguneri has had 15 Assembly elections since 1952 in which the Congress has won six times. AIADMK has won five times, DMK twice and CPI and Janata Party once each. Aside from Nadars, Thevars, Devendrakula Vellalars (DKV) and Konars make up a significant section of the electorate. The key issues here are the nonfunctional Special Economical Zone (SEZ), delay in implementing Thamirabarani-Karumeniyar-Nambiyar river-linking project, need to bring Manimuthar dam water to the 46 ponds of Nanguneri area and lack of facilities for banana farmers.
In the recent parliamentary election, DMK’s S Gnanathiraviam, who won from Tirunelveli, received 34,710 votes more than the votes secured by AIADMK’s Paul Manoj Pandian in the segment.
However, the political scenario has changed since. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the splinter AMMK’s S Michael Rayappan received 15,114 votes in the Nanguneri segment. But, after the polls, AMMK crumbled and its founder TTV Dhinakaran said the party would boycott the bypolls as a result of which voters from the Thevar community, who were drawn to the party, are said to be favouring AIADMK again.
Narayanan, a follower of Ayya Vazhi, is also expected to attract votes from Ayya Vazhi adherents in Kalakkad region. What may hurt him is the decision of Puthiya Tamilagam and John Pandian’s TMMK to not support AIADMK over the government’s delay in removing the DKV community from the SC list (removal which can be done only by Centre) is one of their demands but not now. Aside from traditional Congress voters, the Muslims of Eruvadi are also expected to vote for Manoharan.