The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Lok Paritran pleased with its performance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 13, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Lok Paritran pleased with its performance

Susan Muthalaly

Santhanagopal Vasudev got 10,000 votes in Mylapore

CHENNAI : Political debutant Lok Paritran did not win any seat in the seven constituencies it fielded candidates for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, but the party's leaders are pleased with the 37,000 votes they picked up.

Mylapore contestant Santhanagopal Vasudev, LP's most familiar face (called the essence of Chennai by some, like "thayir sadam and vadumaanga") won 10,000 votes. Rajamany ("Mani with a `y', because I'm always asking why," he explains) won 12,000 votes in Annanagar.

A day after the results were announced, he and his party members collected at a Mylapore house to discuss the results and their strategy for the future.

First time

"It's a very good performance for the first time," said Mr. Vasudev, pointing out that the 10,000 nods in their direction was proof that they managed to tap into the lower economic strata. Party legal eagle Srikant Chakravarti chimed in, "we wouldn't have got so many votes if only one segment had voted for us [upper middle class]. I personally know that we reached many slum dwellers in Mylapore while campaigning." The party has a state-wide strength of about 4,000-5,000 of varying ages. Their initial plan of action will be to get a party infrastructure in place, said Mr. Vasudev. "We are doing this full time," he said. They will spread their net to different areas of the State and then work on creating a presence in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. "We plan to spread awareness about the party. There is no point doing anything hastily," he said. And after that, they would tackle their concerns — "health, sanitation and education are issues we can tackle at a social level as opposed to water supply that is easier to deal with at a government level," said Mr. Vasudev.

Mr. Rajamany plans to "bridge the gap between employers and employees" for more employment opportunity.

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