Nilgiris, (Tamil for blue mountains) in the picturesque Western Ghats is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu. A Raja, described as the “King of corruption” for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, is fighting from the Nilgiris on a DMK ticket to redeem his reputation.
With the Returning Officer rejecting the nomination papers filed by S Gurumurthy and his dummy candidate D Anbarasan of the BJP for their failure to submit the authorisation form from the party, the NDA is left without a candidate in this constituency which has become the cynosure of all eyes due to Raja’s presence.
Now the fight is between C Gopalakrishnan (52) of the AIADMK and Raja. Though there are two candidates from AAP and the Congress, they are irrelevant as the fight is between the DMK and the AIADMK.
Raja, who won from this constituency in 2009 with a margin of 86,000 votes has adopted a new style of campaigning. He is approaching the electorate with the plea that only their endorsement of his candidature would help him to come out of the victimisation drive launched against him by the powerful business lobby in New Delhi. His campaign managers have spread the message that the ire of the corporate lobby is because of his Dalit background.
Since he launched his campaign in February 2014 itself, Raja has completed two rounds of campaigning in this constituency spread across the districts of Nilgiris, Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore. Raja is a rank outsider in the Nilgiris as he was transplanted from his hometown of Perambalur.
With the realignment of parties and formation of NDA, the situation underwent a big change in the Nilgiris. The DMDK led by Vijayakanth has more than a lakh votes in the constituency. The Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam, an outfit of Gounders has nearly 75,000 votes. Add to this the votes of the BJP, MDMK and the PMK, the other constituents of the NDA. Had there been a NDA candidate in the fray, Raja would have faced a drubbing in the Nilgiris.
That’s how “Operation lotus” was conceived and executed. The DMK was sure that the DMDK, the PMK, and the MDMK voters would not vote for Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK. “With the BJP out of the scene, the DMDK votes would go en masse to the DMK,” said a top BJP office-bearer in Chennai. He also pointed out that many DMK agents have infiltrated into the BJP for acts of subversion. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the Tamil Nadu BJP leadership is yet to devise a course of action in the Nilgiris.
The DMK has pasted posters carrying pictures of Raja’s arrest in connection with the spectrum scam and is asking the people to give their verdict if he is guilty or not. Stalin, the chosen heir of party president M Karunanidhi, who campaigned in Nilgiris did not utter the words spectrum, corruption and scam. His focus was on the “misrule” of the Jayalalithaa-led Tamil Nadu Government.
Nilgiris is important to Jayalalithaa since she has a sprawling retreat at Kotagiri, which she loves more than Chennai. Many times in a year, the Chief Minister flies down to the vast estate which has all modern communication facilities including video conferencing. She has handpicked Gopalakrishnan, a local municipal chairman, as the party candidate from the Nilgiris.
Raja’s election speeches focus more on the flood relief work done by him in the region during 2009. But the 2G scam hit the headlines much after that. “We know that he was in jail for 18 months and is out on bail. Nobody will keep a person for such a long time in jail without any reasons,” said Venkateshan, a Badaga community member from the Kotagiri hills.
Gopalakrishnan himself is aware of the significance of the bout for Nilgiris. “I am confident of winning this election. The fact that I have been selected by Amma (read Jayalalithaa) and that I am the son of the soil are my advantages. The welfare measures launched by Amma are our strong point. We have been organising legal aid clinics for poor people for the last ten years and this has gone down well with the voters,” Gopalakrishnan told The Pioneer.
Gopalakrishnan’s confidence found echo in Venugopal, an employee in one of the tea estates. “People are aware of the kind of misdeeds committed by Raja while he was the Communication Minister. We are not that illiterate,” he said.
True to the adage, everything is fair in love and war, the AIADMK activists solicit votes from all parties including the DMDK and the MDMK. They assure the NDA that after the elections the AIADMK would support Narendra Modi.
Raja too has abstained from criticising Modi since the former Communications Minister could smell the Modi wave billowing from the Western Ghats. But everything depends on how the AIADMK could convince the 12.42 lakh voters about the importance of the race for Nilgiri derby.