KARUR: Aravakurichi, one of the controversial constituencies in the State, is all set to see the third Assembly election in the past 5 years. Polling was suspended here in 2016 after a widespread seizure of cash, and numerous complaints of voters being bribed. Voting was later postponed for about a week. The elected MLA of Aravakurichi, Senthil Balaji, was disqualified by Speaker in 2017, and the seat fell vacant for about 2 years. Later, by-election was announced in 2019, which included Aravakurichi.
Although both the Dravidian majors have won this seat 5 times each, it has now become one of the strongholds of DMK owing to a vast number of minority votes. Since AIADMK made a pact with the BJP, the region has shifted its support more towards DMK as its has huge Muslim population. With more than 45,000 minority votes out of the 2.1 lakh votes here, Aravakurichi will be a tough nut to crack for the rookie BJP candidate.
BJP has fielded former cop and the party’s State vice president K Annamalai against DMK’s K Paramathi union functionary Monjanur PR Ilango, who is also a first-timer. Annamalai (37) is a former IPS officer who worked as a Superintendent of Police in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru district, and as deputy commissioner of police in Bengaluru (south) in Karnataka. He later joined the BJP to kick-start his political career.
Mojanur PR Ilango, who is the son of former Aravakurichi MLA (1989) Monjanur P Ramasamy, has completed BE Civil Engineering. He joined the party is the early 2000s and had served in several roles in the party. Currently, Ilango is serving as the party’s K Paramathi union west wing in-charge. Both of them will have big challenges lying ahead once one of them makes it to the top in the election.
Although the ‘former IPS officer’ tag might work in Annamalai’s favour, the ‘BJP factor’ is being a hindrance for his victory here owing to the sizeable minority votes. Similarly, Ilango’s chances are also, to some extent, affected due to the ‘dynasty politics’ image as he is the son of a former MLA. Being one of the driest regions in the district, agriculture in Aravakurichi has been facing a lot of issues. Being one of the largest cultivators of drumstick plants in South India, the harvested produce is sent to various other States.
As the price of drumsticks decrease dramatically during the off-season, people have been demanding a drumstick processing plant and moringa powder manufacturing factory in their region for a long time, which helps to increase the price of their produce and for the local youth to have employment. Despite the locals putting forth a request to procure their drumsticks and build a factory in Aravakurichi for more than a decade, none of the political parties gave an ear to them.
Apart from drumsticks, betel leaves are the second-largest cultivated crop in the region. As the number of pan eaters is declining steadily, farmers have requested the government to set up a Betel Leaf Research Centre in their region to study the medicinal values in the leaves and use them in producing drugs. Apart from this, water scarcity has been a persistent problem in Aravakurichi.
As a native of Aravakurichi...
“Being a native of Aravakurichi, I understand the needs of the people here. Water scarcity is the most vital issue in the region and we will address that immediately. We will take all the necessary steps to supply drinking water to all the households in Aravakurichi. The drumstick farmers’ demands have been taken into consideration and we’ll fulfil all their needs,” said Monjanur PR Ilango.
‘Will bring 20K jobs for youth’
“We will win by a sizeable margin. Aravakurichi is my home constituency. We have challenges, being a rural segment and yet we’ll win this one. I will take the necessary steps to bring in industries at Aravakurichi and will create job opportunities for 20,000 local youths as unemployment is one of the bigger problems here. As far as the minority votes are concerned, it’s the DMK which thrives on religious politics and not us,” said K Annamalai.
Voters in the Aravakurichi constituency
Male: 1,01,902
Female: 1,11,201
Transpersons: 7
Total Voters: 2,13,110