TIRUNELVELI: Tirunelveli, one of the oldest constituencies in the State, is also considered a ‘lucky constituency’ as the party winning here has mostly formed the government in the State.The constituency has people from myriad walks of life, including government employees, industrial workers, wage labourers, mill workers and people owning small or micro businesses.
There are urban as well as rural regions. While one part of the constituency has cement and paper manufacturing units and stone quarries, the other side has acres of green fields of paddy, banana and pulses fed by the Thamirabarani. The constituency is also the abode of the Nellaiappar Temple.
Caste is a key factor and also plays a part in deciding the representative of the region. The major communities are Scheduled Castes, followed by the Pillai and Yadava communities. Before the 2016 Assembly elections, the party that won in Tirunelveli had also formed the government in the State. However, this trend changed in 2016 when DMK candidate ALS Lakshmanan won here. From 1967, the DMK and AIADMK have won six and seven Assembly elections respectively. Lakshmanan is the DMK candidate again and is the son of DMK veteran AL Subramanian, who was a three-time MLA of the constituency and former Mayor before passing away in 2012. Similarly, VR Nedunchezhiyan and GR Edmund, who were senior leaders during the early days of AIADMK, won the elections from Tirunelveli constituency.
Lakshmanan will take on Nainar Nagendran of the BJP which is part of the AIADMK alliance.This is not the first time they are facing off as Nainar Nagendran has won against AL Subramanian and his son Lakshmanan previously. However, this will be the first election where Nagendran will contest under the BJP symbol. Nainar Nagendran served as the Electricity Minister during AIADMK regime during 2001-06. However, he switched to BJP in 2017 after the demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
He has “Face Value”, says a political observer of the constituency. “He is known for being approachable and has popularity among people of different vote banks. DMK’s Lakshmanan too has the ‘common man’ image and people from various communities have known him and his father. “Both candidates have a vote bank, but contesting under BJP symbol could be a challenge for Nainar Nagendran,” added the expert.
The constituency has many long-pending demands. One of the major concerns is drinking water and a 55-year-old sanitary worker explained that her house and her nearby streets still do not have clean drinking water supply. She said, “While I have been a sanitary worker cleaning the roads and other garbage, I do not get clean drinking water in our house.” Maharani (55) of Narikuravar Colony added, “Its not just drinking water. During rainy season, water also enters our residential area.”
For the youngsters, the major issue is unemployment. Rajesh (25) said that if industries such as the South India Co-operative Spinning Mill, that was closed in 2004, are reopened, unemployment would come down. More than 7,000 labourers lost their jobs during the closure of the spinning mills. Additionally, a student of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University said traffic is a big issue and demanded infrastructure development in urban areas.
Farmers living along the Thamirabarani river demanded that the Manur and Pallamadai tank be desilted and requested better irrigation facilities. “As Thamirabarani water does not reach tail-end parts, we were unable to cultivate and harvest crops,” said Arunachalam, a farmer.
Sitting MLA and DMK candidate Lakshmanan expressed his difficulties in bringing in the schemes as he belonged to the opposition party so far. “As the constituency has urban areas and panchayats, development and issues of both the regions will be addressed if DMK forms government,” he assured. While he said that he has funded many corporation projects and works, he promised water supply to Manur and Pallamadai tanks from Thamirabarani river, opening of Pettai Spinning mill or a new mill, and more industries.
BJP candidate Nainar Nagendran said that his focus will be on constructing check dams across the Thamirabarani river, opening a textile park in Tirunelveli and constructing a ring road to Courtallam connecting Nagercoil, so that tourists from Madurai or other districts could use it to avoid traffic. He added that the BJP symobol will not be a major challenge as people still see him as “Nainar Nagendran”.
Key issues
Drinking water, traffic woes, unemployment and desilting of tanks are major concerns in the constituency which has both urban and rural population