Rama. Ramanathan will have to mothball marriage plans again

Out of AIADMK candidate list, he is bound by his vow to marry only when both he and the party win.

Ramanathan canvassed in Kumbakonam on Sunday, but fell out of favour the day after. —PHOTO: R.M. RAJARATHINAM

In the midst of a hectic election campaign, luck took a turn for the worse for former Kumbakonam legislator Rama. Ramanathan on Monday. The 52-year-old was about to leave home for the day’s campaign when he received the news that he was no longer the AIADMK’s candidate from Kumbakonam.

While campaigning during the 2001 Assembly election, Mr. Ramanathan took a public vow that he would tie the knot only when his party is voted to power with Jayalalithaa as the Chief Minister and if he himself wins. While Mr. Ramanathan lost that election to former Minister Ko. Si. Mani, the AIADMK was voted to power. The party gave him yet another chance in 2006, when he again thundered in public about his vow. In a double whammy, both the AIADMK and Mr. Ramanathan lost.

But while the tide turned for the party in 2011, Mr. Ramanathan could not make use of the opportunity as he lost to Mr. Mani’s protégé G. Anbalagan.

Over the next five years, the former legislator, who won from Kumbakonam in 1991, worked his way back and becamethe party’s Kumbakonam town secretary. But, he lost some of his key supporters, one of them his personal assistant and protégé Vishnu Balaji, who had vowed to marry only after Mr. Ramanathan does. Till date, he too remains unmarried despite falling out with his former mentor.

When, against expectations, Ms. Jayalalithaa announced Mr. Ramanathan’s candidature from Kumbakonam this time, murmurs grew into loud protests. But the party went ahead and the Chief Minister even mentioned his name during an election rally in Tiruchi last Saturday.

With townsmen expecting the DMK to retain the seat by a comfortable margin, the DMK candidate and sitting MLA, Mr. Anbalagan, was seen taking a stroll in a park in the town.

But Monday’s news dashed Mr. Ramanathan’s hopes. His replacement, Kumbakonam Municipal Chairperson Rathna Sekar, is credited with a successful conduct of the massive Mahamaham festival last February.

And unfortunately, marriage continues to remain a mirage for the former legislator.