Adjoining a coconut grove in remote Vairivel village in Aranthangi constituency, a band of vehicles halts on a rugged road. A bunch of villagers, mostly women, gather under the road-side tree and cheer the “uncrowned king” of the soil, Su. Thirunavukkarasar, a former Union Minister and Congress leader, as he emerges out of his campaign vehicle.
The 66-year-old veteran, who won a record six consecutive elections from 1977 to 1996 from the constituency, is here to seek votes for the aspiring prince in the family – his 35-year-old son T. Ramachandran, the Congress candidate.
Touched by the warmth of the villagers, Mr. Thirunavukkarasar turns emotional. “Forty years ago, you reposed faith and elected me from Aranthangi for the first time. I am here to seek your goodwill and support now for my son contesting from the same seat,” he says.
A trusted lieutenant of AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran, Mr. Thirunavukkarasar is busy traversing the length and breadth of Aranthangi constituency feverishly canvassing support for his son.
With holy ash on his forehead, the young Ramachandran, a BBA degree holder from a US University, reaches out to the voters elsewhere in the constituency as part of a well-chalked out campaign schedule. Backed by the DMK and its allies, the father-son duo is giving the campaign a “personal” touch in a bid to regain the Aranthangi seat which the AIADMK won in 2011.
Mr. Thirunavukkarasar harps on the good work carried out by him for the backward Aranthangi as a Minister in the erstwhile MGR government. “I have been constantly serving the people of my constituency for 40 years now, whether in power or out of it,” says Mr. Thirunavukkarasar, a household name in the constituency.
He is unfazed by comments that he has kept switching loyalties and hopping from one party to another. “I have always been with you and so will my son,” he tells the voters, even while highlighting the salient features of the DMK’s poll manifesto.
Though he is making his electoral debut, Mr. Ramachandran says he had seen campaigns of his father right from his younger days and has drawn from the experience.
Banking on the solid base of the Congress’ senior ally, the DMK and his father’s “image” Mr. Ramachandran says he would be “accessible” to the voters. Fulfilling basic facilities and creating job opportunities tops his agenda, he adds.
It was in 1977 that Mr. Thirunavukkarasu (as he was called then) was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on an AIADMK ticket. His bonding with the people of the constituency was so intense that they elected him irrespective of which party he was associated with – AIADMK (Jayalalithaa faction) in 1989 and Thayaga Marumalarchi Kazhagam in 1991. In 1996, he was one among the four candidates in Tamil Nadu who survived the anti-AIADMK wave. Again in 2001, when he revived his MGRADMK and fielded S. Arasan in the constituency, the electorate voted for him.
