COVER STORY

The Pondicherry scene

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN

BY the last week of April, the Union Territory of Pondicherry was far ahead of neighbouring Tamil Nadu in terms of campaign tempo and election-related activity as reflected in wall graffiti, festoons and the number of election offices.

The DMK has mounted a hectic campaign in the company of the nascent Pondicherry Makkal Congress (PMC) headed by P. Kannan, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Dalit Panthers and the Janata Dal (United). Matching the DMK-led alliance or even ahead of it, is the ruling front comprising the Congress(I) and the TMC in tandem with the CPI. The third alliance comprises the AIADMK and the PMK.

The Pondicherry Assembly has 33 seats, including 30 elected and three nominated members. While the DMK is contesting 13 seats, its allies the PMC has put up candidates in nine, the BJP five, the Dalit Panthers in two and the Janata Dal (United) in one. In the casse of the other front, the Congress is contesting from 21 constituencies, the TMC seven and the CPI two. The AIADMK has fielded candidates in 20 constituencies while the PMK is in the fray in 10. The MDMK is also in the field.

The AIADMK-PMK alliance is nowhere in the race. The people of Pondicherry appear to be hostile to this front after the AIADMK and the PMK reached a pact in March by which a PMK nominee would be the Chief Minister for the first two and a half years, and an AIADMK nominee would head the government for the next two and a half years if the alliance was voted to power. The agreement was signed by AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha and PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss. The PMK is essentially a Vanniya-dominated party. Pondicherry has a sizable population of Vanniyas.

Dr. Ramadoss was keen to instal a Vanniyar as the Chief Minister of Pondicherry in 2001 and worked hard for several weeks in February and March to achieve this end. Inexplicably, he seems to have given up Pondicherry. "He is not to be seen here nowadays," said a voter. It would seems that the PMK cadres too have switched themselves off.

Chief Minister and Congress(I) leader P. Shanmugham and Pondicherry Congress Committee president V. Narayanaswamy are not contesting. Congressmen claimed that these two leaders were not in the race because they wanted to devote their energies to enable the alliance to return to power. But inside information was that Shanmugham's candidature was "sabotaged". Shanmugham did not attend the function on April 25 at which the Congress(I) manifesto was released. Kannan, who revolted against the TMC leadership and formed the PMC, is also not contesting.

The alliances led by the DMK and the Congress(I) are seeking votes on the strength of their performance. The former lists the achievements of the Janakiraman government during its four years in office and the latter the work done by the Shanmugham Ministry.

The Kasukadai constituency is witnessing a fight between K. Lakshminarayanan, PMC president, and V. Balaji, TMC president.

Kannan had won this seat - three times in - 1985, 1991 and 1996. Balaji is banking on the good work done by the Shanmugham government. "We have given clean government and so command the admiration of the people. Based on this, we will come back to power," he said.

At Mudaliapet, the fight is between Congress candidate V. Sabapathy and PMC candidate M.A.S. Subramanian. The AIADMK's A. Ravindran and the MDMK contestant Muthu are not really in the race. Sabapathy commands the respect of a large section of voters.

Another constituency that is witnessing a keen fight is Villanur, where the PMC candidate J. Narayanaswamy is pitted against Theni C. Jayakumar, a TMC Minister, and Raman of the AIADMK.

Voters blame Dr. Ramadoss for the triangular fight and for breaking the alliance of the Congress(I) and the TMC with the AIADMK. Political analysts point out that Dr. Ramadoss, who had begun the countdown to the inauguration of a Vanniyar Chief Minister of Pondicherry, had stopped it. "There are no sober speeches from the PMK leadership. Dr. Ramadoss' rotational system of Chief Minister is akin to MGR's (M.G. Ramachandran, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister) suggestion that Pondicherry should merge with Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK came a cropper in the subsequent elections," an analyst said.

The PMK, in several cases, had also denied seats to popular ticket-seekers. For instance, M. Manjini, who left the CPI and joined the PMK, was denied the ticket from Mudaliarpet, where he had been elected in 1996. Manjini has now pledged his support to the DMK. S. Ramsingh, PMK legislator from Ariyankuppam, has been denied the ticket. When the seats were shared with the AIADMK, the PMK eyed the seats held by the Congress but the AIADMK appropriated them, analysts said.

Dalits voters of the Embalam (reserved) constituency are an angry lot. Everywhere in this constituency, Dalit peasant workers, both men and women, were vociferous in their support of Dalit Panthers headed by R. Tirumavalavan. In the fray are S. Palanivel of the Dalit Panthers, Neela Gangadharan of the Congress, M. Nagamani of the AIADMK, and Muthukrishnan of the MDMK. Be it Abhishekhapakkam, Thavalakuppam, Thanampalayam, Nanamedu or Korkadu, Dalits said they would vote for Palanivel because "Tirumavalavan is our leader."

Overall, the fight in Pondicherry is essentially between the Congress-TMC-CPI alliance and the DMK-headed front.