CHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president M Krishnasamy, who won the Lok Sabha elections from Arani constituency with a thumping majority of over a lakh votes, is a contender for a berth in the new ministry at the Centre as the Congress would love to recapture its lost base in the Vanniyar belt.
Not only is Krishnasamy the only Vanniyar in the Congress entering the Lok Sabha now, he is also a loyal party veteran, who had served as the president of the TNCC. That he is also popular among the masses was proved in the elections when he polled 3,96,728 votes as against his nearest AIADMK rival’s tally of 2,89,898 votes — the highest victory margin among Congress candidates.
For the Congress that lost its traditional support among the Vanniyars after the PMK was launched by Dr S Ramadoss in 1989 as a party dedicated to the interest of the most backward community, the immediate need will be to show itself as party friendly to Vanniyars.
With this elections proving that the Vanniyars themselves are disillusioned with the PMK, which lost all the seven seats it contested in the state and Pondicherry, it is the right time for the Congress to make inroads into the belt by making one from the community a minister.
Besides that, Krishnasamy is the lone prominent Vanniyar Congressmen at the moment. Since past leaders like Vazhapadi Ramamurthy, who had tried to keep the Vanniyars in the Congress fold when the PMK juggernaut rolled through the state, are no more in the scene now, the Congress is likely to recognise Krishnasamy’s importance in the party.
Though Krishnasamy, being a true Congressman, had never worn his caste identity on his sleeves, for the community he could be at least shown as a poster boy of the Congress.