NAGAPATTINAM: Karuppambulam's quest for democracy at the grassroots level ended this year. For the past 33 years, the panchayat president was elected unopposed. Candidature for the post of panchayat president has been decided by an influential family in the village and no one dared to contest against the chosen one. As a result, candidates in 1996, 2001, 2006, and 2011 saw no competition.
R Subburaman, an MCA graduate, broke the pattern and is the first democratically elected panchayat president of the village. "I met the people twice during my campaign, to introduce myself and to present the manifesto. I am happy people have shown faith in me," said the 30-year-old who works as an insurance agent.
For what he has achieved, Subburaman does not have a political background. His father is a retired government servant and no one from his family is into politics. "I entered politics because I wanted my village needed development and an educated elected representative could make that happen," he said.
"I promised people that I would work to set up a society for jasmine farmers, and digitize management of the panchayat," said Subburaman. He said he was restless for month after filing nominations and received threats. " I had sleepless nights since I broke a tradition. My friends helped me in campaigning," he explained.
Karuppambulam's was among the polling booths identified as sensitive and a huge posse of police was deployed on December 30, the polling day. That perhaps made voters come out in big numbers, he added. Karuppambulam has a voter strength of
3911 and six candidates were in the fray. A total of 3050 votes were (77.99 %) polled.
Subburaman emerged winner bagging 1581 (53.74 % votes out of 2942 valid votes) and outnumbered the runner-up by over 1032 votes. The other candidates lost deposit. M Balaji, Tamil teacher in the high school, said,"The village lacked notable development all these years. The appointed representatives were complacent and not very impressive. We were desperate to elect someone for a change."
R Sivaji, a 68-year-old farmer, said, " We were fuming that there is yet to be someone who could step in and help this panchayat develop, in aspects, which we missed all these years. Subburamnan is educated and knows subjects like RTI."
Subburaman's victory is seen as an example around Vedaranyam, that youth, positivity, and modern thinking can triumph all odds.