It will be a battle of professionals in Madurai

April 15, 2024 08:54 pm | Updated April 16, 2024 07:26 am IST - MADURAI

The Temple City of Madurai will be witnessing a battle of professionals in the Lok Sabha election. A writer, a doctor and a professor are in the arena for a three-way fight. An Assistant Professor is also in the fray.

The incumbent, Su. Venkatesan of the CPI(M) - a DMK ally - and winner of Sahitya Akademi award, is in the battle with AIADMK’s P. Saravanan, a doctor by profession and the BJP’s Raama Sreenivasan, a professor. Naam Tamilar Katchi’s T. Satyadevi, an Assistant Professor, is the only woman candidate.

In the 2019 election, Mr. Venkatesan defeated AIADMK’s V.V.R. Raj Satyen by a margin of 1.39 lakh votes. He will be looking to emulate fellow communist and partyman P. Mohan who won the Lok Sabha election as an incumbent. Mr. Venkatesan believes that he will win the election by an even bigger margin of not less than two lakh votes.

Mr. Mohan won the 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Madurai. He improved his vote percentage from 43.85% in 1999 to 56.03% in 2004. The winning streak was cut short by DMK’s M.K. Alagiri in 2009 who defeated Mr. Mohan by a margin of 1.40 lakh votes and in 2014 AIADMK’s R. Gopalakrishnan defeated DMK’s V. Velusamy by a margin of 1.99 lakh votes. Now, the CPI(M), the DMK and the Congress are in the poll alliance.

Madurai district is a stronghold of the two major Dravidian parties when it comes to Assembly election. It reflected in the 2021 elections with the DMK and the AIADMK winning five each of the 10 Assembly segments in the district.

Six of the 10 Assembly segments come under Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency. While six Assembly constituencies - Madurai North, Madurai South, Madurai East, Madurai West, Madurai Central and Melur came under Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, Tirupparankundram and Tirumangalam come under Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency, and Sholavandan and Usilampatti under Theni Lok Sabha constituency.

In the Lok Sabha election, the Congress has won eight times in Madurai constituency.

Mr. Saravanan of the AIADMK believes that the fight is between his party and the CPI(M) in the Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency. A former MLA of the DMK, he was elected from the Tirupparankundram Assembly segment in the 2019 by-election.

After he was denied a ticket by the DMK in the 2021 Assembly election, he joined the BJP, of which he was earlier a member in 2015. He contested the 2021 Assembly election from Madurai North on a BJP ticket. He lost the election. Subsequently, he quit the BJP and joined the AIADMK in 2023. He had started his political career with the MDMK.

However, Mr. Sreenivasan of the BJP believes that there is anti-incumbency in Tamil Nadu. He says that unlike the 2019 Lok Sabha election, which saw anti-Modi wave in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been receiving good reception in the State now.

The Mukkulathor community has a majority presence in the constituency. The Sourashtra community also has a considerable presence.

Madurai, the gateway of southern districts, lacks industrial growth. There are no big investments in the region. The national educational institutes announced for Madurai are yet to take shape. Only now there is some activity at AIIMS-Madurai project and the NIPER project that was announced more than 10 years ago is a non-starter, the voters complain.

The tourism potential of the district, which has been witnessing a good number of tourists in recent times, remains untapped, stakeholders say. Madurai airport should function round the clock with the status of international airport to facilitate better connectivity. All these factors will help bring in investments, according to Madurai-based trade bodies

Madurai was once a textile hub, but lost its prominence to places like Tirupur. Similarly, Madurai is losing to Thoothukudi in terms of industrial development. In recent times, farmers are suffering due to lack of adequate water for irrigation. If these grievances are redressed and the true potential of Madurai is properly tapped, Madurai could become a medical hub and a food processing hub. While various projects were announced under Smart Cities Mission, the y are long overdue, , a cross-section of the voters say.