He was the DMK’s face in Chennai’s Egmore area for over three decades. But, this time around, Parithi Elamvazhuthi is contesting the elections on the ruling party’s ticket.
Mr. Elamvazhuthi represented the constituency for 22 straight years before losing to a first-time DMDK candidate by about 200 votes in 2011. Though there are differing accounts of how and why he later fell out of DMK scion M.K. Stalin’s favour, Mr. Elamvazhuthi doesn’t intend to explain it to the electorate, which has always seen him seek vote for DMK since 1989.
With a strong support base in the constituency, he has always secured about half of the total votes polled in every election since 1984. In 1991, he was the only DMK candidate other to win apart from party president M. Karunanidhi.
“Tell me why a five-time MLA and popular leader would need any introduction in the constituency? Amma knows this and that’s why she gave him the seat soon after he left the DMK and joined us. We are hopeful that his friends in the DMK would also vote for him,” says an AIADMK functionary.
Though a familiar face in the constituency, one of Mr. Elamvazhuthi’s biggest challenges this time will be winning the youth vote as the electorate has become bigger by about 30,000 since 2011, a component that is difficult to factor in during electoral calculations.
