Tamil Nadu - Cuddalore   

DPI's saving grace is Cuddalore district

Special Correspondent

Kattumannarkoil happens to be a prestigious seat for the party

CUDDALORE: Of the nine seats contested by the Dalit Panthers of India in the May 8 Assembly elections, it has won only in two — Kattumannarkoil and Mangalore — and incidentally both happen to be in Cuddalore district.

Since, the DPI has been categorised as "registered unrecognised party" its candidates contested the elections on the Bell symbol.

Kattumannarkoil happens to be a prestigious seat for the party, as its general secretary Thol. Thirumavalavan had originally planned to contest from the seat. Similar is the case for the Congress, because it is the only seat allotted to the party in the district by the Democratic Progressive Alliance.

However, after the DPI had aligned with the AIADMK, Mr. Thirumavalavan opted out of the contest and chose to campaign for the alliance candidates.

Therefore, D. Ravikumar (57,244 votes) whom the DPI fielded in the constituency has wrested the seat from P. Vallalperuman (43,830 votes), sitting MLA of the Congress.

The repeated campaigning by Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, and the arithmatics of the alliance could not help Mr. Vallalperuman to retain the seat.

Shock and surprise

In the Mangalore Assembly constituency, the victory of K. Selvam of the DPI (61,976 votes) over V. Ganesan of the DMK (54,617 votes) has caused both surprise and shock in the DPA circle.

In the past two years, the constituency had witnessed three elections: 2001 Assembly elections, and by-poll and Lok Sabha elections in 2004. In 2001, Mr. Thirumavalavan won the Mangalore seat on the DMK symbol.

However, in 2004 he resigned as MLA and unsuccessfully contested the Chidambaram Lok Sabha seat. In the subsequent by-election Mr. Ganesan emerged successful, but he failed to make the mark now.

Mr. Ganesan alleged that the bogus votes polled by the DPI cadres at Orangur caused his defeat. Of the 3,500 voters there, about 3,000 had allegedly cast the bogus votes in booth numbers 22, 23 and 24. While the genuine voters just registered their attendance, the bogus voters cast the votes in favour of the DPI. Though he had taken it to the notice of the officials, they did not pay heed, Mr. Ganesan said.

However, Mr. Selvam denied any such malpractices anywhere in the constituency. He vowed to fulfil the promises such as desilting the Wellington tank, opening paddy procurement centres and so on.

Mr. Selvam said Mangalore had been the DPI bastion and it was but natural that it got it back after a brief period.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

DPI's saving grace is Cuddalore district
In Cuddalore district, the honours are even
Road workers celebrate DMK's return to power

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu