TIRUCHY: Anguished and angered that the political parties have not bothered to address their longstanding demand to lift the ban on the traditional bull fighting, jallikattu enthusiasts here have decided to field candidates in seats where the event is considered special to the point of being divine.
The leaders of the group admit that they would lose in the election, but are confident of skewing the results by opening another front in the already multi-cornered fight.
Jallikattu organisers have been appealing to various authorities to enlist the traditional games like jallikattu, rekla race, manjuvirattu and rooster fight in list of festivals approved by the government so that it could be organised annually. They had approached the district Collectors of Tiruchy, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Madurai and Dindigul, urging them to recommend the government to enlist the events in government festivals list.
“We had then approached parties with similar requests, asking them to include our demands in their election manifestos. But none paid attention to the repeated pleas,” said T Rajesh, State president, Tamilar Veera Vilayattu Pathukaappu Kazhagam.
The organisation first announced that its members in all these districts would surrender their election ID card to the district-level officials to press their demand, but the officials managed to pacify them. They were sent away with promises that were not kept yet, the members claimed.
“One after the other, we approached people in all possible levels. With no option left, we held a discussion among the members two days ago, where it was decided that we would contest the election. The initial plan is to contest only in six Assembly constituencies where there are a large number of traditional game enthusiasts,” Rajesh said.
For instance, rekla race and manju virattu are famous in Theni, Cumbam, Sivagangai, Karaikudi, Tirupatthur and Ponnamaravathy areas, while rooster fight is popular among the people in Karur, Tiruchy, Madurai and Pudukkottai. Jallikattu is famous in Madurai, Pudukkottai, Tiruchy, Thanjavur and Dindigul.
“Each of these seats have about 10 to 15 villages, and each village has around 1,500 to 2,000 voters. Over 90 per cent of them love these sports and they will do anything for the cause of reviving the events,” said Rajesh confidently.
The organisation has initially planned to contest in Tirupattur (Sivagangai district) , Tiruverumbur (Tiruchy district), Viralimalai (Pudukkottai district), Bodi (Theni), Cholavanthan (Madurai) and Natham (Dindigul).
They know their limitations when it comes to elections.
Admitting this, the leaders said winning was not the primary aim. As per their calculation, they can get as much as 20,000 votes, which will definitely play a spoilsport in the multi-cornered contest, he added.
“Our way of campaigning will certainly put politicos in a fix,” stressed Rajesh, adding that the list of candidates will be released in a few days.
Initial plan is to contest only in 6 Assembly constit-uencies where there are a large number of tradi-tional game enthu- siasts— T Rajesh, Tamilar Veera Vilayattu Pathukaappu Kazhagam