ARIYALUR:
Battle lines have been drawn for a close encounter between Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader and State Vanniyar Sangam president Guru alias J.Gurunathan and P.Elavazhagan of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the district secretary of the party in the Vanniyar belt of Jayankondam constituency in the district.
10 in the fray
Ten candidates, including four independents and six party candidates are in the fray in the constituency. After the removal of the Andimadam constituency in the delimitation exercise, the entire Andimadam block and part of T.Pazhur block came under the Jayankondam constituency.
K.Rajendran of the AIADMK who won the seat in the 2006 by a slender margin of 2,057 votes, defeating his nearest rival Kaduvetti Guru (PMK), has joined the DMK recently.
Mr.Guru is contesting the seat for the third time, while Mr Elavazhagan is trying his luck for the first time. Mr Guru had contested the Tiruvannamalai Lok Sabha seat in 2009, but become unsuccessful.
Achievements
The PMK candidate is endearing himself to the voters by highlighting the achievements of the DMK government in the last five years and assuring them that he would take steps to solve the problems of the weavers in the constituency and to fulfil the long-pending demand for establishing a power plant at Jayankondam by utilising the coal in the region.
On the other hand, Mr.Elavazhagan is throwing a stiff competition to his rival by promising the voters that he would make efforts to get adequate compensation for the lands given by the farmers for establishing the thermal power plant in Jayankondam and to get them employment.
Facilities for weavers
He is also promising the people that he would take steps to help the weavers by providing them all facilities and to promote Gangaikondachozhapuram as a tourist hub . N.Ramasamy, a 65-year-old silk handloom weaver in Jayankondam, told The Hindu that no major development works had been carried out in the constituency over the last five years. Weaving is the major source of income and the weavers are now struggling for survival because of high cost of silk yarn.
P.Rajathi, a housewife in Varadarajanpettai, blamed the government for not getting adequate drinking water and pointed out that they would vote for the party, which promised to ensure drinking water .
Power plant
S.Veerasenan of T.Pazhur, an employee of a cement factory, said the people of the district were disappointed as the DMK government failed to establish a power plant at Jayankondam even though lands were acquired from the people. The DMK had won the Jayankondam seat five times followed by the AIADMK's four times, Congress's three and once by an independent in the last 13 Assembly polls in the State.
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