The Karur Lok Sabha constituency, which had gained notoriety for seizure of unaccounted money during recent elections, is witnessing a keen contest between incumbent Member of Parliament S. Jothimani of the Congress and L. Thangavel, a debutant of the AIADMK.
Ms. Jothimani and Mr. Thangavel are among the 54 candidates in the fray. While BJP has fielded V.V. Senthilnathan, Naam Tamilar Kartchi has nominated R. Karuppaiah.
The six Assembly segments of the constituency are spread over Karur, Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Dindigul districts and is dominated by Kongu Vellalars, an intermediate caste, followed by dalits.
Mukkulathors dominate in Viralimalai Assembly segment in Pudukottai district. Karur has been a bastion of the AIADMK for long and the party nominees have been elected to Parliament six times since 1971.
They emerged victorious in the elections held in 1989, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2009, and 2014. The Congress won five times in 1971, 1977, 1980, 1984, and 2019 elections. The DMK won in 2004 and the TMC in 1996.
The Karur Assembly segment is a thriving textile hub with a concentration of textile, tailoring, embroidery, and dyeing units. This apart, the town is known for its bus body building and mosquito nets making units. Krishnarayapuram, Aravakurichi, Vedasandur, Manapparai, and Viralimalai are primarily rural and agrarian segments.
The industrial units in Karur provide direct employment to nearly three lakh people and the textile units and their ancillaries produce various products worth about ₹9,000 crore a year. The volume of exports constitutes about ₹6,000 crore.
However, though Karur is on the growth trajectory for several years, captains of the textile industry are of the view that the growth is slow mainly due to lack of infrastructure to synchronise various processes of the textile manufacturing and processing.
Theyhave been fighting for the establishment of Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) and Integrated Processing Centre from the Centre and State governments for so long. There are vociferous demands for setting up a trade centre in the town too.
Despite Karur being a major foreign exchange earning centre in the country, the successive governments at the Centre and in the State have not given importance to create the much- needed infrastructure.
The absence of a four-lane highway between Karur and Coimbatore and Karur and Tiruchi is often viewed as a drawback for the overall development of the region. “If we want to take the Karur textile cluster to the new level, we need to have a modern common effluent treatment plant and the processing centre. Our demands are only on paper. Nothing is moving,” said P. Gopalakrishnan, president, Karur Textile Exporters and Manufacturers Association.
Tough questions
Months prior to the announcement of the Lok Sabha election, Ms. Jothimani sought to reach out to the voters by undertaking an extensive tour of the constituency to redress public grievances, and has since been straining every nerve to retain the seat. She is banking on the strength of the INDIA bloc. But she had to face some tough questions from the voters over her achievement as an MP in the last five years.
There have been criticisms that Ms. Jothimani had failed to connect with the voters as she mostly visited the constituency only to attend government functions.
Except for implementing small projects such as passenger shelters and additional classrooms under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, her contribution to the development of the constituency is meagre, a section of voters feel.
In 2019, Ms. Jothimani defeated AIADMK veteran Thambidurai by a margin of over 4.20 lakh votes. Former Minister V. Senthilbalaji, who is the district secretary of the DMK, had worked hard with her to defeat Mr. Thambidurai. Many attribute Ms. Jothimani’s big victory to Mr. Senthilbalaji’s support. But this time around, Mr. Senthilbalaji, known for being resourceful, is languishing in prison in a money laundering case.
For Mr. Thangavel, two leaves symbol is a biggest asset. He banks on the loyal vote bank of the AIADMK. He tries to bring the voters in his side by raking up anti-incumbency sentiment against Ms. Jothimathi and the ruling DMK government in the State. However, his unpopularity with the voters has been a negative point.
Mr. Senthilnathan, who switched over to the BJP from the AIADMK last year, is working hard to win over the confidence of the voters by highlighting the achievements of the Narendra Modi government. Amidst an intense political battle, Ms. Jothimani is pulling all the stops to get re-elected.
In 2019, S. Jothimani of the Congress defeated Thambidurai of AIADMK by a margin of over 4.20 lakh votes.
