More promises for Thondamuthur

The campaign for the by-election to the Thondamuthur Assembly constituency in Coimbatore came to an end on Sunday, after a fortnight of promises that ranged from drinking water supply by lorries to a special economic zone for toddy tapping. Inadequate drinking water and lack of basic amenities are some of the major local issues highlighted during the campaign.

Union Ministers P. Chidambaram, A. Raja and G.K. Vasan, Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi formed a formidable array of Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders who campaigned intensively to win over a little more than 3.4 lakh voters in the constituency.Congress candidate M.N. Kandaswamy is pitted against Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate V. Perumal, K. Thangavelu of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), M. Chinnaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party and E.R. Easwaran of the Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam.

Mr. Chidambaram, Mr. Stalin and the other star campaigners for the Congress candidate listed the farm loan waiver by both the Central and State Governments, the free colour television and LPG stove scheme and the health insurance programme for the poor in the State as among the many notable achievements.

The CPI (M) and Communist Party of India went on a joint campaign for the CPI (M) candidate by pointing out that people still reeled under price rise. State secretaries of the parties N. Varadarajan (CPI-M) and D. Pandian (CPI) were the leaders who went around the constituency.Apart from the vote share that it had created for itself in the 2006 Assembly elections, the DMDK canvassed the AIADMK votes also this time, as the latter and its allies were boycotting the by-elections.

A section of the voters even asserted that a sizeable number of AIADMK votes might go to the DMDK. “This is an AIADMK stronghold and this factor can prove decisive,” said T.P. Siva, an erstwhile AIADMK worker who now supported the DMDK.

M. Kannappan, who resigned from the seat on crossing over to the DMK from the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, won from here in 2006 when his party, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, contested as an ally of the AIADMK. S.R. Balasubramoniyan won as the Tamil Maanila Congress candidate in 2001 when his party was an ally of the AIADMK. Mr. Chinnaraj won as the AIADMK candidate in 1980.

A sweep across the State in favour of the DMK saw its candidate win this seat in 1996.Out of 12 Assembly elections since 1951, the AIADMK and its front members had won the Thondamuthur seat six times.The AIADMK individually won the seat four times. The Congress won twice, the DMK thrice.

Areca nut cultivation and processing is a major economic activity in Thondamuthur. The labour shortage was partially been solved with workers coming from Assam for better wages.“But, we want the State Government to remove the Sales Tax at least on the varieties for the local market,” said T.K. Kamarajan, who owned an areca farm and processing unit.

Trial run of live coverage of polling

The district administration made here on Saturday a trial run of the planned live coverage of polling for the Thondamuthur Assembly Constituency on August 18.

The office of the District Election Officer and District Collector in Coimbatore and the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Chennai will watch the polling through a coverage enabled by a broadband connection.The trial run, however, could not be viewed at the Collectorate as the connectivity with the polling booth at Thondamuthur could not be established. But, it was said that the office of the CEO viewed it. More trials would be made on Sunday.

Of the 393 booths in the constituency, the coverage would be done from 321 booths because the broadband connectivity could be established only from these places, District Collector P. Umanath told presspersons after the trial run.As for the other booths, the web cameras in the laptop computers would record the entire polling. These could be viewed if verification of any disruption or any other problems during polling needed to be done.

A short messaging service (SMS)-based monitoring of the polling would also be done on August 18. Booth Level Officers would send to the DEO’s office SMS update on taking charge of the booth, the arrival of polling material and officials, booth agents, polling percentage and any disruption in polling.

DMK stunned by it defeat !!

Stunned by the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections in the Coimbatore region, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam seems set to go into the reasons for the front’s poor show since the 2006 Assembly elections.Party sources indicate that Coimbatore is turning out to be an unfriendly turf. In both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the DMK front lost to the alliance led by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Serial blasts

The DMK’s woes in Coimbatore began in 1998, when its candidate lost the Lok Sabha elections soon after the serial blasts here in February that year.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won by a large margin. The BJP won the seat again in the mid-term elections next year, defeating candidates of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Tamil Maanila Congress. In the 2001 Assembly elections, the AIADMK front won all the 14 seats in Coimbatore.

Relief came in the form of wins in the Coimbatore and Pollachi constituencies in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections that saw a sweep in favour of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance.But, the 2006 Assembly elections proved disastrous for the DMK in Coimbatore, and became one of the reasons that denied an outright majority for the party. Of the 14 seats, the DMK front won only three. Of these, the DMK won only one (Coimbatore East), while the other two – Valparai and Tirupur – were won by the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Stronghold

This led to the view that Coimbatore was turning into an AIADMK stronghold. What followed was a desperate effort to win the Coimbatore Corporation elections. Of the 72 wards, the DMK won 29. The Congress and the CPI (M) won eight each and the CPI, four. Now, the CPI and the CPI (M) are with the AIADMK that won 10 wards.The 2006 local body elections may well have been the most closely fought since 1996 as the DMK had a lot at stake after the Assembly poll rout.

Now, the 2009 Lok Sabha elections have virtually brought back the 2006 situation. While the rest of the State has given a good mandate to the DMK front, it lost out to the AIADMK alliance in Coimbatore district. While the Pollachi seat was won by the AIADMK. Its ally, CPI (M) won Coimbatore, defeating the Congress. The newly formed Tirupur seat (carved out of Coimbatore) was also won by the AIADMK.

Delay blamed

Sources in the DMK blame the latest debacle on the delay in the campaign taking off. By the time Congress candidate and former Union Minister R.Prabhu began his campaign, CPI (M) candidate P.R.Natarjan had capitalised on a good headstart.Congress sources attribute this to the delay in the party leadership announcing the candidates for some seats, including Coimbatore.This left the DMK and the Congress with very little time for campaign. DMK sources point out that by then Mr. Natarajan and his campaign teams had strongly campaigned against Mr.Prabhu, repeatedly calling him a person inaccessible for the common man.

Mr. Prabhu countered this campaign saying he has always been accessible. A faction in the Congress is also believed to have worked against him.The sources, however, point out that Mr.Prabhu polled 18,000 votes less than Mr. Natarajan in the Kavundampalayam Assembly segment where he was expected to poll more.The sources feel that by cutting into both fronts’ vote share, the newly formed Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam made things tough for Mr.Natarajan and disastrous for Mr.Prabhu.

Why did Congress lose in Kongu region ..?

The Lok Sabha election results proved right the projections made earlier that all the four DMK-front Congress candidates in the Kongu region — K V Thangkabalu (Salem), R Prabhu (Coimbatore), S K Karvendan (Tirupur) and E V K S Elangovan (Erode) — would be voted out.There have been several factors, including faction feuds and Eelam issue, which led to the downfall of Congress in the region.However, the newly formed Kongu Nadu Munnetra Peravai (KNMP) that made its debut here played the community card by garnering sizeable votes.While change of constituencies by Congress candidates Elangovan, Prabhu and Karvendan has been attributed as the main cause of their defeat, in the case of Elangovan, film director Bharathiraja’s campaign against him is said to have helped Ganesamurthy.

In Erode, MDMK candidate Ganesamurthy defeated Elangovan by a margin of over 49,000 votes.Ganesamurthy was said to have won the sympathy of since

since he was arrested under POTA and jailed for over 500 days for the Lankan Tamil cause. Moreover, Elangovan as Gobichettipalayam MP failed to do help the textile sector.Karvendan, who lost to AIADMK candidate C Sivasamy contesting in Tirupur, was an outsider but as Palani MP he had the uni que distinction of raising over 1,000 questions in Parliament. Sivasamy won the hearts of the electorate for his good work as an MLA. He won by a margin of over 85,000 votes.

Prabhu, who was a fivetime MP in Nilgiris, had to switch his constituency to his hometown Coimbatore after Nilgiris became a reserve constituency.Factionalism in party played spoilsport for him with Vasan camp members distancing themselves from Prabhu.CPM candidate P R Natarajan defeated Prabhu by a margin of over 35,000 votes.Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief K V Thangkabalu, a sitting MP from Salem, failed to retain his seat due to factionalism in the party, the Sri Lakan issue and the toddy tapping issue.Former AIADMK minister Semmalai wrested the seat with a margin of over 46,000 votes.In Nilgiris, the KNMP candidate S Bhadiran garnered 32,779 votes while in Namakkal the KNMP candidate R Devaraj scored 52,433 votes.Undoubtedly, KNMP made its impact felt during this polls.

AIADMK Sweeps Tirupur

Chellappa Sivasami of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has walked into the annals of history by becoming the first candidate to get elected from the newly-constituted Tirupur Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday by defeating his nearest rival Salarapatty Kuppusamy Kharventhan of Indian National Congress by a margin of 85,346 votes.

While Mr. Sivasami got 2,95,731 votes of the total 7,41,714 votes cast (which includes postal ballot) in the elections, Mr. Kharventhan received 2,10,385 votes. K. Balasubramanian of Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam, a newly-born party, finished a surprise third with 95,299 votes polled in favour of him. Though highly tipped to finish third, N. Dinesh Kumar of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam could get only the fourth spot with a tally of 86,933 votes.The only woman candidate out of the 21 contestants in the fray, P. Malarvizhi (Independent) got only 1,171 out of the total polled votes. Soon after the counting commenced at Gobichettipalayam Arts and Science College on Saturday, Mr. Sivasami shot into lead from where he never looked back.

At the end of the first round, Mr. Sivasami was ahead of Mr. Kharventhan by 4,302 votes. He constantly extended the lead to about 50,000 by the end of the ninth round.By 14th round, the lead of Mr. Sivasami was widened to 76,906.Mr. Kharventhan got more votes than Mr. Sivasamy only in Gobichettipalayam Assembly segment.

Postal ballots

Of the total 1,155 postal votes polled in this election, Mr. Kharventhan got 690, Mr. Sivasami got 70, K. Balasubramanian (KMK) got 81, M. Sivakumar (BJP) got five, R. Pandian and A.. Karthikkeyean (both independents) got two each and the rest were invalid.

Meanwhile, the number of voters who had exercised the option available under Rule 49 (O) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, which entitles voters to register their refusal to votes, was 130.

AIADMK wins Pollachi Lok Sabha seat

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate K. Sugumar was declared elected from the Pollachi Lok Sabha Constituency on Saturday. Mr. Sugumar won by a margin of 46,025 votes.

He had polled 3,05,935 votes as against his nearest Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) rival K. Shanmugasundaram who had polled 2,59,910 votes. Of the 10.13 lakh voters,Pollachi recorded 75.81 per cent polling i.e., a total of 7,71,831 votes were polled of which 352 votes were rejected.Of the total of 2,528 postal votes, 1,863 went in favour of DMK while AIADMK polled 109 votes. 170 postal votes went in favour of Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam (KMK) candidate, Best S. Ramasamy.

A total of 22 candidates were in the fray in Pollachi Lok Sabha seat.The recently floated KMK candidate had polled 1,03,004 votes pushing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), candidate V.S. Baba Ramesh to the fifth place while K.P. Thangavel of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMDK) finished fourth. BJP candidate had polled, 16,815 votes while DMDK candidate K.P. Thangavel had polled 38,824 votes.

Right from the first round of counting, the AIADMK candidate maintained a clear margin steering him to victory. The counting of votes took place at the PA College of Engineering, Pollachi.

1,500 Policemen Took Out Flag March in Coimbatore

With a view to ensure free and fair polling during the fifth and last phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 13, over 1,500 policemen took out a flag march in Coimbatore. The flag march was conducted to infuse confidence among voters that adequate security measures are in force to ensure a peaceful casting of votes. Police contingents drawn from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala participated in the four kilometers march led by the city police commissioner.

"Over 1,500 policemen held a flag march and we are happy to see this march. We hope we can now vote in the election without any fear," said Murugan, a resident. All 39 parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu will go to polls on Wednesday. So far, elections have been completed to 457 seats since the exercise began on April 16. On May 7, the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections held for 85 constituencies spread across seven States had witnessed 57 per cent voting of the total 9.46 crore eligible votes. The first, second and third phases of polling were held on April 16, 23 and 30 respectively. The counting of votes will take place on May 16. The 543-member House will be constituted before June 2.

Industrialists to raise Voice of Kovai !!

For long believed to be soft and not inclined to take on the political class and the babus, industrialists of the Coimbatore region are in a belligerent mood. Ranking next to Chennai in industrial development and contributing Rs 3,500 crore to Central and the State taxes, the Coimbatore region has been feeling neglected, with its claim for better infrastructure, raw material supply, power, etc., ignored.

Thus, some months back, the industry associations here took the uncommon decision of downing shutters for a day and taking out a rally to protest against the steep power cut. Mr Mahendra Ramdas, President, Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Coimbatore, said the continuous process spinning industry has seen a decline in revenue because of the 45-50 per cent power cut. Auto ancillary units and foundries that cater to the export market have also been affected. Knitting units and the pumpset industry reported a 10 per cent drop in revenues last year over the previous year; exports gave them some cushion.

However paradoxical, Mr Ramdas is sure that “this downturn is not going to be an election issue or affect the prospects of any political party. But thankfully for the Government the elections have come in April-May. Had they come in October/November, the impact would have been severe, and the talking point would have been recession than any other issue, especially as the common people would have been badly hit. And, this segment is the real vote bank.”

Mr K. Ilango, President, Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia), put the loss in production suffered by the small/medium units in the Coimbatore region at around Rs 500 crore a month. The region, which exports about Rs 300-400 crore a month, has reported a halving in the performance. The Rs 250-500 crore that was to have come to the Coimbatore region from the Rs 7,000 crore promised the small/medium units in the country, also has not materialised.

Mr Jayakumar Ramdass, President, Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association (SIEMA), Coimbatore, reasons that the workers are more concerned with their daily necessities such as drinking water, and public distribution supplies, and as long as these are available, they may not turn their ire on the political parties.

Mr Jayakumar Ramadass, describing the coming together of 110 trade and industry associations and NGOs in Coimbatore to voice the demand of the people ahead of the polls, says they intend presenting their memorandum on the development needs of the region to all the candidates. Even after the elections, they would continue to put pressure on the elected representatives to fulfill the wishes of the people. Describing the new found belligerence among the trade and industry associations as the ‘new face of Coimbatore’, he said they would bring ‘sustained’ pressure on the politicians and bureaucrats to deliver.

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