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Thamizhachi remains confident that Tamilisai’s candidacy hasn’t made the going tough for her. “I don’t think her contesting in the seat has heated up the race. In our campaign, we can see people elated by the DMK government. We will win by a big margin,” she told this newspaper. Apart from its traditional vote bank, especially among the working class population, the DMK derives its confidence from the tri-cornered nature of the contest, expected to result in a split of opposition votes in its favour.The third key party in the race is AIADMK, which had won the constituency thrice in the past. The principal opposition party in Tamil Nadu has fielded J Jayavardhan, who won here in 2014 but lost to Thamizhachi in 2019. Jayavardhan is relying on his track record as an MP and on having stayed in touch with the people even when he was not in power.Interestingly, in this electoral battle, BJP’s jibe of DMK being a dynastic party finds little purchase as all three key candidates hail from political families. Tamilisai is the daughter of veteran Congress leader Kumari Anandan.Thamizhachi is the daughter of V Thangapandian, who was former revenue minister in the DMK government, and the sister of present finance minister Thangam Thennarasu. Jayavardhan is the son of AIADMK’s prominent leader from Chennai and former minister D Jayakumar.The two Dravidian majors are framing this as a contest between themselves and they may be right. The BJP has contested in this constituency five times and lost its deposit thrice. The closest it came to a victory was when Jana Krishnamurthi, who later became BJP president, contested in 1998 as part of the AIADMK alliance and came runner-up by securing 45.9% votes.The second closest was when former BJP state president and present Nagaland Governor La Ganesan secured 24.1% votes in 2014 without the support of the two Dravidian majors, but aided by a few other regional parties in a multi-cornered contest and the huge anti-incumbency against Congress and DMK. Still, he came third.For Tamilisai, the drubbing she was handed by Kanimozhi Karunanidhi of DMK in the Thoothukudi constituency in 2019 is a thing of the past. After the time spent in Puducherry as L-G, she is determined to win this election. “I have been a voter of this constituency for 40 years now. I don’t think this constituency is a fort of DMK. We are receiving a good response from the people. We will create history by breaking into this supposed fort,” she told this newspaper.She is hopeful of joining the star-studded list of past winners from the constituency, which includes DMK founder C N Annadurai, Congress leader T T Krishnamachari, former President R Venkatraman, former minister Murasoli Maran and actor and dancer Vyjayanthimala Bali.
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Tamil vs Thamizh in spirited south Chennai fight
