ERODE: During the election campaign, there was a debate if Lotus would bloom in Tamil Nadu. Now, it is all set to bloom in the district that was the birthplace of the Dravidian Movement – Erode. The BJP’s C Saraswathi has won the seat by a thin margin of 281 votes. In close contest of two septuagenarians, C Saraswathi (76) has defeated DMK veteran politician Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan (74), who had also been a Union Minister.
Despite the constituency being dominated by agrarian population, who were against the farm laws introduced by the Central government and staged continuous protests against high tension power transmission towers passing over their lands, BJP managed to come neck to neck due to vigorous campaigning.
A doctor by profession, C Saraswathi’s reputation for helping the poor when they visit her hospital in Erode played a part in her good show. During the election campaign, she also said that she would provide free knee surgeries for poor people. Several Hindu outfits were also involved in door-to-door campaign.
Meanwhile, DMK cadre felt that their deputy general secretary Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, who was elected from the same constituency in 1977 and 1996, was complacent and didn’t involve herself in field work to canvass the voters as she though that people wouldn’t vote for BJP. However, this has now proved costly for DMK. “Many of the cadre expected P Sachidhanandham to be given the seat again.
Even when DMK functionaries were distributing relief materials during Covid-19, she was nowhere to be seen,” said sources. Even in 2016 polls, AIADMK won the seat by a close margin. AIADMK candidate Sivasubramani registered a win in the Modakkurichi seat by a margin of 2,222 votes (1.26%) fighting against DMK candidate P Sachidanandam. This is the third time AIADMK or its ally has won in the constituency.