While most people cannot think of a life without a mobile phone, ‘Karu’ Kasalingam, 65, alias Ilakkiyadasan, the DMK candidate in the byelection to Manamadurai Assembly segment, is comfortable without the device, though he is not averse to it.
Mr. Ilakkiyadasan, a postgraduate in Tamil from Thiagarajar College in Madurai, prefers face-to-face interaction with people. He ensures that he could be contacted through his friends wherever he went.
However, after the party announced his candidature, he could not be without a mobile phone. “I got the mobile phone from my wife and started using it,” said Mr. Ilakkiyadasan, who is testing his electoral fortunes for the second time after unsuccessfully contesting from Manamadurai in the 1991 Assembly election.
