The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Unplanned development ails DMK bastion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 12, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Unplanned development ails DMK bastion

By T. Ramakrishnan

Chennai can be blamed for umpteen things. Unplanned development, never ending water problem, open sewage channel in the heart of the city in the form of Cooum, not to speak of the presence of a large number of slums.

All said and done, one cannot ignore the city's importance, politically or otherwise. Be it Annie Besant or Rukmini Devi Arundale or Kamaraj, Chennai was the base of personalities who had their own visions of changing society. Chennai is as famous for its ``kutcheri season'' as for its international leather fairs. Despite having witnessed intense agitations for the protection of the local language (Tamil), Chennai possesses a sizable number of linguistic minorities.

Politically speaking, Chennai and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) have close ties. Not only was the party born in Chennai, it also scored a significant political victory, emerging as the single largest party in the election to the Chennai Corporation Council in 1959 and A.P. Arasu becoming the first DMK Mayor of Chennai.

The city also has the distinction of having sent to the Lok Sabha seasoned Parliamentarians, such as T.T. Krishnamachari, R. Venkataraman, S. C. C. Anthony Pillai and `Murasoli' Maran. Besides, N.V.N. Somu, Nanjil K. Manoharan and A. Kalanidhi were some of the DMK veterans who represented Chennai in Parliament.

It is against this backdrop that the Lok Sabha elections in Chennai assume importance, especially for the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The ruling party is making all-out efforts to break the DMK bastion.

For the first time since 1980, the ruling party is contesting from two of the three Lok Sabha seats in the city. This time, the AIADMK general secretary and Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, has decided to devote eight days for campaigning in Chennai.

In the last three decades, only once the party was successful in getting its candidate elected to Parliament.

In 1991, R. Sridharan won from South Chennai.

As in the past, the DMK, has fielded its nominees for all the seats and its leader M. Karunanidhi has set apart five days for campaigning in the city.

Since 1996, the party won all the three seats.

Expectedly, the present spell of water scarcity has become a topic of political debate with the DMK and the AIADMK holding each other responsible for the problem.

While the Chief Minister assures the people that the ongoing New Veeranam Project, meant to bring water for Chennai, will yield results, her rival dismisses the scheme as unviable.

For more than a year, Chennai has not had a Mayor. Traffic congestion is becoming a major problem.

Increasing pollution and declining green and lung space are among the other problems.

The total number of Assembly segments in the district is 14: Royapuram, Harbour, Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar, Perambur, (all coming under the North Chennai Lok Sabha constitutency, which also includes Tiruvotriyur and Villivakkam of Tiruvallur district), Park Town, Purasawalkam, Egmore (SC), Anna Nagar, Thousand Lights, Chepauk, (all coming under the Central Chennai constituency) and T. Nagar, Triplicane, Mylapore and Saidapet (all under the South Chennai constitutency, which includes Alandur and Tambaram of Kancheepuram district).

Total electorate: 49,16,410 (men: 24,73,108 and women 24,43,302).

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