CHENNAI: A tough fight is expected at the Royapuram Assembly constituency, which is the birthplace of the DMK, but has been the AIADMK's stronghold for decades now.
The poll battle for this constituency gains significance as Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar has been nominated as the AIADMK's candidate for the seventh consecutive time.
Born in the fishing community there and also a lawyer, Jayakumar, a five-time local MLA, who first won the constituency in 1991, has only lost once in 1996. Following that, he has been the MLA for 20 years straight since 2001. Much of the battle will revolve around Jayakumar's personal popularity in this North Chennai locality. He is also known for ensuring people's basic civic needs are immediatelyaddressed.
While DMK for the last two elections gave this constituency to the Congress, it now wants to recapture it.
DMK’s organizing secretary RS Bharathi in January said that the party won’t give the constituency to alliance partners. In reply, Jayakumar, boasting of his popularity, dared the DMK president MK Stalin to contest in the constituency.
While Jayakumar's popularity is undisputed, this time he may have a few fresh challenges, like the anti-incumbency factor due to 10 years of AIADMK rule and absence of the party's late leader J Jayalalithaa.
The constituency's vote base consists mainly of four communities - fishermen, Muslims, Nadars, and Dalits. Certain sections of these communities have reasons to be unhappy with Jayakumar.
A Sounder, Fishing Union Head of Kasimedu, said it is the fishermen community that made Jayakumar win repeatedly. But this time, it is doubtful as they have faced multiple issues and Jayakumar, being the Fisheries Minister, is alleged to have not paid heed to them.
“Some people related to the Minister introduced much-faster Chinese engines to the Kasimedu fishing boats. We protested against the fisheries department to take action and remove the Chinese engines from boats as with the faster engine, a section of fishermen got leverage but the fishermen were lathi-charged and protests were cleared,” he said.
The fishing union head pointed out that fishermen are clearly divided this time and it is hard to say if the votes would flow to him again in a similar fashion, as they have also faced severe livelihood issues during Covid-19 and cyclone Nivar.
Another important issue is the anti-CAA protests in the constituency which happened in 2020. Dastha Bai, one of the active protesters, said that the Muslim community constituting a sizeable vote bank is clearly against the ruling dispensation. “Muslim community members may not support parties in favour of or silent on the CAA issue. Even women participated in the protests and are aware of whom to vote,” says Dastha Bai.
On the other hand, the DMK's problem is that it lacks a popular face locally at the moment to match Jayakumar. A DMK functionary said seat-sharing discussions are still ongoing and though it is anticipated that the DMK may contest in Royapuram, it will be finalized by the party high command.
“Some powerful candidates are lobbying for the DMK to get the seat as it is equally popular among the fisher community in Kasimedu and can also get the anti-incumbency and minority voters,” said the DMK functionary.
It has been suggested in political circles that KP Sankar, brother of late MLA KPP Samy of Thiruvottiyur, who died recently while in power, would be pitted against Jayakumar in Royapuram.
Locally, KP Sankar also enjoys popularity among fishermen as Thivottiyur and Royapuram are just adjacent constituencies sharing a lot in common.
However, the AIADMK is hopeful that Jayakumar will overcome the odds and emerge victorious.
R Manohar, who contested against Jayakumar in 2011 and 2016 on a Congress ticket, has recently joined the AIADMK. He is confident that Jayakumar will surely emerge victorious this time too. “He stood six times and won five times with a good margin. It speaks for itself,” Manohar told The New Indian Express.