The seat has all along been a DMK bastion while the Dravidar Kazhagam has a sizeable following in both the urban and rural settings of Thanjavur Assembly Constituency that mostly comprises Thanjavur City Corporation areas and adjoining areas such as Vallam, Pillayarpatti and Nanjikkottai among others.
A historical town that should have grown to great heights, Thanjavur has witnessed only an excruciatingly slow pace of development. Save for the World Tamil Conference in 1995, real estate development and housing expansion as also infrastructure development and attendant socio economic development has been lopsided. There have been tall leaders from the region across the political spectrum yet Thanjavur did not capitalise on their stature.
“That is the bane of Thanjavur. The former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, the former President R. Venkatraman, Congress heavyweight G.K. Moopanar, DMK leading light Mannai Narayanasamy and many such leaders have had their moorings in Thanjavur region but their contribution to uplift of the people here has been woefully inadequate. The effect is felt even when we don't have leaders as our political representatives,” says sales professional S. Prakash of Municipal Colony here.
Nagging traffic congestion in the core city limits, untidy TNSTC buses some of which are not fit for travel and bad roads are some of the eye sores that have remained part of the Thanjavur lore so to say, rues librarian P. Subashini of Thanjavur. “Those are not insurmountable shortcomings but our elected representatives did not even move their little finger to address them. There is an urgent need for operating more trains to Chennai and other destinations but Thanjavur is losing out to other regions,” says Ms. Subashini.
Neglect of civic amenities during the best part of the past few years is another issue that might militate against voters preferring the AIADMK as the ruling party has a comfortable majority in the corporation. The corporation could have done better now to support the cause of the AIADMK candidate and MLA M. Rengasamy who is trying to fight his way into the DMK fort.
The DMK is fielding political novice Anjugam Bhoopathy, a medical professional and daughter of a local party leader to try and regain the constituency. DMK president M. Karunanidhi, himself elected as an MLA from Thanjavur in 1962 to lay the foundation of his party’s citadel, recalled that in fact it was he who named her Anjugam in memory of his mother while urging the electorate to return her this time.
While Mr. Ubayadullah of DMK won the seat four times since 1989, his senior colleague S. Natarajan won in 1971, 1977, and 1980. The stranglehold of the DMK can be gauged from the fact that before Mr. Rengasamy won for the AIADMK in the last elections, it was the former Minister S.D. Somasundaram who won in 1991 riding the anti-DMK wave that lashed the State then. Those were the only two occasions when the current ruling party managed to win Thanjavur.
Seen in that context, Mr. Rengasamy is fighting hard to retain his seat that has been extending widespread support to the DMK candidates.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s freebies offer could hold out some hope for the resourceful Mr. Rengasamy but beyond that he needs to convince a lot more people than he has done now to emerge victorious.
Ms. Anjugam’s party strength apart, she is on a slippery ground because of squabbles that has plagued the DMK in Thanjavur in the past few years. Mr. Palanimanikkam was expecting the seat for his brother S.S. Rajkumar but since he has fallen out of favour with the new generation of leaders in his party, he lost out and is licking his wounds. To add insult to injury, the DMK nominated Mr. Rajkumar to fight Mr. Vaithilingam in Orathanad but he sensibly withdrew from the contest. Mr. Palanimanikkam’s supporters are not in a mood to carry the palanquin for Ms. Anjugam.
The curt speech and body language of Mr. Palanimanikkam at the DMK president’s election campaign meeting recently in Thanjavur clearly revealed his hurt feelings and that could adversely impact the fortunes of the DMK. As for the rest of the contestants, they hardly could go near the duel ring in which the DMK fights the AIADMK.
“Uur elected representatives did not even move their little finger to address the problems in the region”
