Although, five parties are in the fray in Villupuram constituency, regarded as one of the most backward areas in terms of development and literacy in the State, for the upcoming parliamentary elections, the fight for honours is restricted to the AIADMK, DMK and DMDK.
The AIADMK has announced S Rajendiran as its candidate, while the DMK has fielded K Muthiyan. Besides, K Umashankar of DMDK is in the race with the support of the PMK, MDMK and BJP, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) has given ticket to G Anandhan in this reserved constituency.
A transgender Kalki and the Congress, which has not announced its candidate yet, are also contesting from the constituency.
The DMDK, in the 2009 polls, had polled about 16 per cent vote in the constituency, which also has a strong presence of the PMK.
It has six Assembly segments Villupuram , Vanur , Tindivanam , Vikravandi , Thirukovilur and Ulundurpet . Villupuram has become a reserved constituency from the 2009 general elections after the delimitation took place in 2008 .
According to the latest voters list released on March 6, a total of 13 ,68, 335 voters, including 6,85,753 men , 682461 women and 121 transgenders are enrolled to exercise their voting right this time. There were only 10,68,171 voters in the previous elections in 2009.
Out of the six Assembly constituencies, four were won by the AIADMK. The winners were D Haridoss (Tindivanam), I Janakiraman (Vanur) , C Ve Shanmugam (Villupuram) and R Kumaragur (Ulundurpet).
Communist Party of India’s (Marxist) Ramamoorthy and DMDK’s Venkatesan won from Vikravandi and Thirukovilur respectively with the support of the AIADMK.
It is an agricultural area with about 8.30 lakh farm labourers and 3.70 farmers, which has prompted the CPI (ML) to jump into the fray.
Though agriculture is the primary activity in the region, the farmers are looking for alternative sources of livelihood due to the absence of adequate water resources.
Lack of drinking water facility, bad shape of roads, lack of drainage, poor transport connectivity, piling of garbage and polluted environment are the other major issues that have affected the populace here.
The seat was lost by the VCK candidate K Swamidurai lost time to AIADMK’s Anandan. Anandan recived 3,06,826
votes while Swamidurai got 3,04,029 votes.