CHENNAI: Have Dalit leaders been left behind in the Dravidian political movement? Express had earlier reported how both the Dravidian majors have missed opportunities to nurture Dalit functionaries into influential leaders.
Now, election data shows that the trend made an impact on the voting patterns in reserved constituencies vis-a-vis general ones.
Because of the absence of strong leaders in reserved constituencies, votes get split among multiple contestants, reducing the winning margins in these segments compared to the general category.
THE NUMBER GAME
There are a total of 46 reserved segments in Tamil Nadu — 44 for Scheduled Castes and 2 for Scheduled Tribes.
In elections, a candidate has to secure at least one sixth of the total votes polled (16.66%) to receive their security deposit back.
Data shows that 10-13 per cent of candidates contesting in general constituencies secure more than one-sixth of votes polled. In other words, they don’t lose deposit.
The figure, however, rises substantially to 20-30 per cent in reserved constituencies.
This indicates a higher split of votes in reserved seats.
Election data between 1996 and 2016 indicate such a high split of votes in reserved seats.
Interestingly, the trend is stable through all these 20 years, immaterial of which Dravidian party is in power. For instance, in 1996, the DMK-TMC combine swept the elections.
Then, only 8.9 per cent of candidates in the general seats got one-sixth of the votes polled.
In reserved seats, however, the figure was a massive 20.2 per cent for SC seats and 33.3 per cent for ST seats. In 2011 too, when AIADMK won by a huge margin, the situation was similar.
Political observers attribute this pattern to multiple factors, with the most important being the absence of strong Dalit leaders.
“Both Dravidian parties failed to field politically influential candidates in reserved seats,” says activist and retired IAS officer Christudoss Gandhi.
“As a result, voters choice was split among multiple candidates.” Gandhi says that at an organisational level, SC/ST candidates are never allowed to grow, even to occupy posts such as a panchayat union secretary or district secretary.
“Hence, reserved seats are given to unpopular local party members who are fully dependent on party support. Barring few exceptions, Dalit legislators who become ministers are largely unknown in their own constituency,” says Gandhi.
Political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy echoes similar views.
“Since candidates from DMK and AIADMK are less popular, fringe Dalit groups field their local leaders, and this leads to splitting of votes.” He adds, “If these outfits field their candidates in general constituencies, they may make a similar impact.”
No influential Dalit leaders
“Both Dravidian parties failed to field politically influential candidates in reserved seats,” says activist and retired IAS Officer Christudoss Gandhi.
“As a result, voters choice was split among multiple candidates.”