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Mudaliarpet, a keenly watched constituency

Rajesh Nair

Dominant Vanniyar community and mill workers hold the key Outcome will have a bearing on the political fortunes of PMC leader P Kannan

PONDICHERRY: Mudaliarpet is one of the keenly watched constituencies as the outcome will have a bearing on the immediate political fortunes of PMC leader P. Kannan. He faces tough competition from the sitting MLA on the one hand and an independent, who apparently introduced him to politics, on the other side.

Mr. Kannan would be taking on the sitting DMK MLA M.A.S. Subramanian and an old time Congress member Sabapathy alias Kothandaraman, who is contesting as an Independent this time. Mr. Sabapathy is in the fray since 1974 Assembly elections either as a Congress or as an Independent candidate.

Stronghold

The constituency is a stronghold of the Congress and the CPI. The decisive factors are how the dominant Vanniyar community and the large segment of mill workers cast their votes.

Mr. Sabapathy who fought the first electoral battle in 1974 as a candidate of the Indian National Congress (Organisation) led by Kamaraj, won the seat and then went on to retain the seat in the next three successive elections on the Congress tickets.

He unsuccessfully contested the 1990 election and again won the seat in 1991 as an independent. Again he contested the last two elections unsuccessfully as the Congress nominee. The main challenge for him was the CPI candidate, whose nominee late M. Manjini won the seat in 1990 and 1996 elections.

As far as the PMC leader, it was for the second time that he is shifting his traditional Cassicade seat, which got him elected thrice with a good majority. Earlier in 1991, he had shifted to Lawspet constituency and won the seat.

The sitting MLA Dr Subramanian began his political career in AIADMK and later switched allegiance to DMK. In 1985 he contested from Orlanpet constituency on AIADMK ticket and won the seat. After a break, he contested from Mudaliarpet on DMK ticket and defeated Sabapathy by a margin of more than 1000 votes.

While, the DMK candidate is banking on the `good' works he had undertaken in the last five years, Mr. Sabapathy depends on his personal rapport with electorate.

Youth support

Mr. Kannan banks on the support of youth and the mill workers spread across the constituency.

There are 32958 voters and unlike in other constituencies men outnumber women.

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