The 70,000-odd strong Malayali adult population in the Tirupur knitwear cluster has always been a sought-after vote bank by political parties here which are, probably, unaware of the fact that half of them go home to vote.
“About 50 per cent of the Malayalam-speaking people in Tirupur, Avinashi and Palladam areas who are eligible to vote, still have their names in the electoral rolls in Kerala,” says N. Balakrishnan, president, Tirupur Kerala Club. But even if the major parties are aware of this, they still think their time wooing this population is well spent, because the population that remains - 35,000 - is substantial.
As poll day approaches, people like K. Jayakumar (49), an industrialist in garment sector, and C. Harinarayanan, a shipping-sector entrepreneur, get ready to head to their native towns of Alathur and Shoranur in Kerala, their routine for the last 25 years.
They clearly value the cordial relationship the local leaders of Kerala have with the electors in their constituencies. “Almost all candidates including prominent leaders like Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Pinarayi Vijayan of CPI (M) personally visit every house in the constituency by foot and that too several times to seek votes,” says Mohammed Nazeem (52), a businessman in Tirupur.
“Even when it is not election time, the leaders constantly interact with the voters. But here, candidates hardly visit the houses though some of them travel through the streets in a van,” he adds.
Many others in the Tirupur cluster like Anoop Varma, a businessman who is a native of Thrissur, who had voted both in Kerala and in Tirupur, feel that most of the time the votes here are cast for a candidate only as a representative of a political party and a good section of voters may not even know the candidates by name.
They value the cordial relationship the local leaders of Kerala have with the electors
