THIRUVOTRIYUR: No smooth sail for Fisheries Minister

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on March 27, 2011:

Link:http://expressbuzz.com/polls2011/tn/no-smooth-sail-for-fisheries-minister/260016.html

CHENNAI: With the Opposition AIADMK fielding the party’s local leader Kuppan for Thiruvotriyur constituency, it’s going to be a tough contest in this high-profile seat where the ruling DMK’s bigwig and Minister K P P Samy is seeking another term in the Assembly.

The contest is likely to be a neck-and-neck race as both the Dravidian parties have considerable presence in the constituency’s labour belts and voters from the fishing community could swing the result either way.  However, the delimitation exercise has dealt a serious blow to the DMK’s chances of retaining the seat.

After the delimitation process, DMK bastions - Madhavaram municipality, Puzhal Union and two wards (1 and 2) of the Chennai Corporation - were moved out of the (then) third largest constituency of the State after Villivakkam and Tambaram and merged with the newly-created Madhavaram constituency and the city’s existing Perambur seat.

While the Thiruvotriyur constituency, in 2006, had about five lakh voters, recent data from the Tiruvallur district administration shows that the seat has about two lak h voters post-delimitation. Since the constituency never voted back a candidate to represent them in the Assembly for the second time in its history, win by any of them would be a record of sort as Samy (2006-11) and Kuppan (1991-96) had already represented the seat once.

More interestingly, earlier data shows that the alliance which wins the Thiruvotriyur constituency was always voted to power in the past. It remains to be seen who snatches victory at the north Chennai’s high profile constituency.

While Samy seeks a second term here by propagating the government’s achievements, Kuppan is fully banking on the anti-incumbency factor.