The Hindu : All set to break his own record?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 24, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

All set to break his own record?

R.Ramabhadran Pillai

KOCHI

The smallest constituency in the world's largest democracy has been playing a major role in the parliamentary system, thanks to a man who has tasted victory in all his electoral battles. P.M. Sayeed, Deputy Speaker of the dissolved Lok Sabha, who has won 10 times consecutively from Lakshadweep, a record, is all set to face the electorate once again.

The 62-year-old parliamentarian, whose birthday falls on May 10 — election day — hopes to win again. Though the late Communist Party of India veteran, Indrajit Gupta, had been elected 10 times to Parliament, his victories did not come in consecutive elections nor was he elected from the same constituency.

The constituency of Lakshadweep, spread over 10 inhabited islands out of a cluster of 20, has an area of 229.5 sq.km and a population of over 63,000.

The number of voters as on January 1, 2003, was 37,926. This constituency has the lowest number of voters in the country and is one of the 41 parliamentary constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

The first elections were held in the islands only in 1967, a decade after elections were held in the fate rest of the country. Prior to this, the President nominated a representative of the Union Territory. Mr. Sayeed, the first elected MP from Lakshadweep, was just 25 then and a student of the Siddharth Law College, Bombay. He was the `baby' of the third Lok Sabha.

"Bureaucracy was at its worst in the islands during those days," remembers the lawyer-turned politician who has completed 37 years as a parliamentarian. Mr. Sayeed defeated the candidate fielded by the bureaucracy "in a bloodless coup," but had to face the ire of the officials immediately. He was denied a ticket on the ship to the mainland soon after the elections. A naval ship had to be pressed into service to ferry him.

In later years, he served as Minister for Steel and Mines in the Charan Singh Ministry and as Home Minister in the Narasimha Rao Goverment.

In 1998, Mr. Sayeed was unanimously elected Deputy Speaker though the BJP had reportedly toyed with the idea of pushing its "own" candidate.

The voter turnout has always been high in Lakshadweep. In the 1999 elections, 80.21 per cent of the electorate turned out to cast their votes, 53.96 per cent of which went to Mr. Sayeed. His main opponent, K.P. Muthukoya of the Janata Dal (United), managed just 43.28 per cent of the votes.

A JD-S candidate and an Independent were also in the fray. The voter turnout percentage in the 1998, 1996, 1991, 1984, 1980 and 1977 elections was 85.1, 89.04, 80.37, 86.98, 88.78 and 84.64 respectively. In all these elections, Mohammad Koya was Mr. Sayeed's main opponent.

But the soft-spoken Mr. Sayeed, who had a humble beginning as a specimen collector on an Indian Council of Agricultural Research assignment in the islands, is not afflicted with poll fever, having gone through the ordeal 10 times.

Whether he will repeat his performance is for the voters to decide, but Mr. Sayeed has no doubts. "Last time I secured 54 per cent of the votes. This time, it will be more," he says.

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