Dharmapuri election heats up with three-way Vanniyar vote split surprising candidate shifts
Jevin Selwyn Henry @ Dharmapuri
hen Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) initially announced party’s Dharmapuri East district secretary Arasangam as their candidate in the constituency for the 2024 parliamentary election, poll pundits presumed that the region will see only a two-cornered fight — between the Dravidian majors. In a major twist to the plot, PMK changed its candidate and fielded Sowmiya Anbumani (53), president of Pasumai Thayagam and wife of party chief Anbumani Ramadoss. Now, the constituency is witnessing a three-cornered fight between Sowmiya; DMK’s A Mani (55), the deputy district secretary of Dharmapuri West; and AIADMK’s Dr R Ashokan (34), son of the party’s Dharmapuri town secretary, P Ravi.
Many were left baffled when DMK fielded Mani instead of the incumbent MP DNV S Senthilkumar as the latter was quite popular as he brought in several projects, including Hogenakkal Drinking Water Phase-2, fluorosis mitigation, and elevating highway in Thoppur and Dharmapuri-Morappur interlinking railway line.
As caste equation plays a major role here with Vanniyars being a significant vote bank, the three major alliances have fielded candidates from this community. Thus, it is expected that the Vanniyar votes would be divided between the three parties. DMK and AIADMK cadres are confident that they would gain the support of minority communities, including the Dalits. PMK is likely to lose out on this, especially because of its alliance with the BJP.
However, Soumiya Anbumani has been well received by people, especially the Vanniyar population. PMK founder S Ramadoss had directly campaigned for her which is also expected to yield good results. Though it is her debut into electoral politics, Soumiya is a familiar face to the people here as she had been in Dharmapuri before, campaigning for Anbumani during the 2019 LS polls.
While Sowmiya holds a doctorate in sociology, DMK’s Mani is a lawyer and AIADMK’s Ashokan is an MBBS doctor.
Dharmapuri is a constituency known for surprises. It had stood with PMK (four times), DMK (thrice), AIADMK (twice), Congress (twice), TMC (once), and even with an independent candidate in the past 13 elections. Though PMK had shown its strength the most number of times, its president Anbumani himself was defeated in 2019 general polls and 2016 assembly election in Pennagaram.
Out of the six assembly segments, both PMK (Dharmapuri, Pennagaram and Mettur) and AIADMK (Palacode, Pappireddipatti and Harur) had won three each in the 2021 polls. The AIADMK-PMK alliance then played a crucial role in DMK’s washout. But, as the two broke the ties, DMK bounced back in the local body election the next year and captured Dharmapuri municipality.
Thus, it is tough to predict a victory as all three alliances have their own strengths and limitations.
When TNIE spoke to the DMK cadre regarding the party’s decision to replace the incumbent MP, they said, “The move has not impacted our morale and we support the party’s decision. We are satisfied with the sitting MP’s work in the past five years as he had addressed all major issues in the constituency.”
M Shankar, secretary of Development Education and Environment Protection Society, said, “There is a chain of sociological problems in the region — school dropout, child marriage, teen pregnancies, anaemic mothers, and birth of malnourished children. The district needs a special initiative to completely eliminate the problem.”
One of the key demands in the district is the establishment of SIPCOT, said J Prathapan, district secretary of Tamil Nadu Agricultural Labourers Association. “Previously, over 1,783 acres of land was taken for the project. However no company or industry has taken root here. Over two lakh residents, especially youth, are working in other cities like Bengaluru as daily-wage labourers. We need businesses and industries to invest here and generate employment. Government must also take initiatives to set up agro-based industries.”
SA Chinnasamy, state president of Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam said, “We need water management schemes, while our primary demand is the Cauvery Surplus Water scheme. We need water security for sustaining cultivation all through the year.”
R Selvraj, a farmer from Nallampalli said, “Vegetable production is high in Dharmapuri but their shelf life is very less. We need refrigerated warehouses to store the produce.”
N Anandan Natarajan from Dharmapuri said, “Revival of Sanathkumar river, known as Dhamapuri’s ‘Koovam’ is a must. Once a freshwater source, it’s now used as a drainage because of encroachments and poor maintenance. So special initiative must be taken to revive the river, this could potentially revive over 50 lakes along the Thenpennai basin.
Know your constituency
Assembly segments - Palacode, Pennagaram, Dharmapuri, Pappireddipatti, Harur (SC) and Mettur
1,805 Total polling centres
15,12,732 - No. of voters
7,64,878 - Male
7,47,678 - Female
176 - Trans persons