SIVAGANGA: Stronghold of Congress, the Sivaganga constituency, formed 57 years ago, has faced 14 parliamentary elections, with the candidates of the grand old party winning eight times. Congress apart, the candidates of DMK, AIADMK, and TMC had made it to the parliament from the constituency twice each.
It is none other than former union minister P Chidambaram who made Sivaganga a Congress fortress, as he won from the constituency seven times - 1984, 1989, 1991, 2004 and 2009 on Congress ticket and 1996 and 1998 on TMC ticket. His, son Karti P Chidambaram of Congress is the sitting MP of the constituency. The father-son duo has managed to represent the constituency for almost 30 years.
This time around, 52-year-old Karti of Congress-DMK alliance, who secured 52.18% vote in the last election, is pitted against first timers A Xavierdass (49) of AIADMK and BJP’s T Dhevanathan Yadav (63), one of the richest candidates, who is also the managing director of a television channel.
Karti’s candidature despite opposition from inside the pary is testimony to the fact that Chidambaram still wields influence in the party and the region. EM Sudarsana Natchiappan, a former Congress MP, who had opposed giving MP seat to Karti in 2019 again raised the issue unsuccessfully this time as well by joining hands with former Karaikudi Congress MLA KR Ramasamy and other anti-Chidambaram faction in the district.
“Karti is not staying in the locality. But if he is determined to do something, he has the capacity to get it done, as he brought law college and agriculture college to the district. Though there is slight anti-incumbency against Karti, he has the advantage this time as the opposition has fielded newbies,” said a resident K Mayilvaham (40) from Tirupattur taluk.
Another resident, Shankara Subramanian from Sivaganga said though Chidambaram Sr held the highest office including home ministry and finance ministry for many years, the constituency did not develop even like that belongs to an ordinary MP. “The people expected more from Chidambaram, however he and his son failed to meet their expectations during their tenures. Karti won’t even visit the family functions and death ceremonies of his party cadre. Whenever he visit the district, he maintains a distance with the people. However, he has an office in locality through which he tracked all developments,” said Shankar.
A Congress cadre said Chidambaram Sr has a good relationship with DMK high command since Kalaignar’s time and it is continuing even in now. Belonging to Chettiar community, one of the communities that has a decent vote bank in the locality, Karti was supported by the DMK district secretary and minister KR Periakaruppan, who belong to Yadavar community.
Meanwhile, AIADMK’s A Xavierdass, is the party’s Kallal union secretary. PR Senthilnathan, who is the district secretary of the party and backed Xavierdass as candidate, had won from the constituency against Karti during the latter’s maiden election in 2014. However, Senthilnathan was not given an MP seat in 2019 when the party faced the election in alliance with BJP that fielded H Raja. In 2021 Senthil became an MLA by taking over the assembly seat from then minister Baskaran. There was a talk that Baskaran’s son Karunakaran may be given an MP seat from the constituency. However, A Xavierdass, belonging to the Chirstian community, was chosen by the party high command.
The third candidate, T Dhevanathan Yadav, a Chennai native and founder president of Inthiya Makkal Kalvi Munnetra Kazhagam, was given the seat to contest by BJP in Lotus symbol. The earlier BJP candidate H Raja who contested in 2014 and 2019 got 13% and 21% vote respectively. Moreover the AMMK candidate in 2019, Therpogi Pandi got 11.29% which altogether may help him in the locality.
NTK candidate V Ezhilarasi, who is native of Thanjavur district is confident of securing more than the previous candidate of the party V Sakthi Priya who had secured 6.66% vote in 2019.
“Karti has dealt effectively with spot questioning in a tonhur-in-cheek manner. In one such occasion, he even tried to woo the next generation voters, schoolchildren, as he assured them if elected he would stop ‘home work, assignments and exam’ in the education system. Moreover, the senior Chidambaram actively campaigned for his son by countering the opposition,” said Muthumani from Karaikudi.
Another resident Sudalai Raja said Dhevanathan in his campaign calls the regime of Chidambaram family as the dark days. He even went a point ahead in the campaign by signing document that if he is elected there will be no need to approach the collector. Xavierdass in a campaign assured he would take steps to implement complete liquor ban not only in Tamil Nadu but also in India. Candidates giving promises for pulling votes went beyond a realistic level, he said.
D Daniel, a native said creating employment is an important task for any MP as many people migrate from the district in search of jobs.
Except Karaikudi, other assembly segments like Tirupattur, Manamadurai, Sivaganga have not attained growth. The Spices Park was established decades ago but it has not attained growth by attracting entrepreneurs. The local people have been demanding stoppage for more trains in the stations in Karaikudi, Sivaganga but no measure was taken.
The Chettinad products are famous abroad and gained attention from the tourists. The district has a lot of old- bungalows which could be used as a tool to promote tourism in the district. And the district has a lot of graphite potential but that was not included in any government plan. “There are around 20 candidates in the election fight including Karti, who often solves the Wordle without efforts and shares in his X (formerly twitter) handle. We have to wait and watch whether he will be elected again from the constituency,” he added.