TIRUNELVELI: Age is just a number, testifies 85-year-old S Perumathaal, who won the race for panchayat president post in Sivanthipatti with a whopping majority, giving the opposition a run for their money.
Though Perumathaal, arguably the oldest panchayat-president elect in the recently-concluded civic polls, has been involved in politics for long, she was never in the fray before.
Sources said for many years, she has been campaigning for her son. She volunteered to contest the election when the authorities reserved the panchayat president post for woman. And, the results proved her decision right, as she bagged 1,568 of the total 2,060 votes.
Speaking to TNIE, Perumathaal said she is happy to follow the footsteps of her son and wants to continue serving the people. "Since I talk to people daily, campaigning and visiting households in the panchayat were not at all a problem for me. I will ensure the panchayat gets uninterrupted supply of drinking water. Drinking water has been a major issue here since my childhood. We are fully dependent on rains. We don't have any other source for drinking water," she said, adding she will also try to install streetlights and lay roads in the panchayat.
Ask the villagers of Sivanthipatti, they would say they know Perumathaal for decades. "She is a very energetic and independent woman who does her duties all by herself," they added.