KANNIYAKUMARI: Fishermen associations in the district have urged political parties to field candidates from the fishing community in Killiyoor and Colachel Assembly constituencies in the upcoming elections, claiming a visible lack of political representation from the community, despite their significant population in said constituencies.
The AIADMK has allotted Killiyoor and Colachel seats to its allies Tamil Maanila Congress and the BJP, respectively, while the DMK-led alliance is yet to finalise the allocation of constituencies and its list of candidates.
MLA Tharahai Cuthbert, elected on the Congress ticket in the 2024 byelection, is the lone legislator from the fishing community in Kanniyakumari district. Her victory from the Vilavancode constituency, where a majority of the voters belong to the Nadar community, ended a decades-long gap in representation since Era Bernard from the DMK won in the Colachel Assembly in 1996.
Captain Johnson, secretary of Colachel-based District Mechanised Boats Association and DMK councillor of Colachel municipality, said that woman leader from the fishing community, Annai Lourdammal Simon, was elected on the Congress ticket in 1957 from the Colachel constituency, and she went on to become the first woman minister of Tamil Nadu. However, by the turn of the century, both state and national parties "systemically sidelined" the fishing community, he claimed.
South Asian Fishermen Fraternity general secretary Father Churchil said the district has 48 coastal villages and 62 inland fishing hamlets, accounting for 20% of the total population of fishermen in the state. Votes from the fishing community have been a key determinant in the victory of candidates in Killiyoor, Colachel, and Kanniyakumari Assembly constituencies.
For the issues and demands of the fishing community to be addressed, a political representation in the Assembly is necessary, he said. For a very long time after Lourdammal Simon and Era Bernard, both Congress and the DMK had deprived the people from the fishing community of opportunities to contest from these constituencies, he added.
International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDET) president P Justin Antony told TNIE, "Though they are given party positions, mainstream politics remains a dream for fishers in the Killiyoor constituency, which has nearly 70,000 voters from the fishing community. Social justice would remain a dream unless political equality becomes a reality."
Kottaiyil Kumarai Meenavan (KKM) secretary Milton Carmel said that the late AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, in 2011, fielded Lawaranece, a candidate from the fishing community in the Colachel constituency, but he finished second in the elections.
Since then, no major political party has fielded candidates from the fishing community. As the AIADMK is in the NDA, the fishermen associations are now demanding that the DMK and the Congress field more candidates from the community, especially in the Killiyoor constituency, he added.