‘There may be first-time voters I might have helped birth’

The Raj Bhavan is usually seen as a great retirement destination after the hardscrabble of electoral politics or a decent pasture for anyone to be rewarded by a ruling dispensation But not for former Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan who was asked by the party to take on Dravidian heavyweights in South ChennaiI was so happy at the Raj Niwashelliprdquo Tamilisai who recently resigned as governor of Telangana and lieutenant governor of Pondicherry admitted to midday ldquohellipdoing so much peoplecentric work But when the party calls you turn up I have had a deep desire to be a peoplersquos representative And I hope to achieve my dream this timerdquoPrime Minister Narendra Modi greets supporters during a roadshow in support of the BJPrsquos candidate from South Chennai constituency Tamilisai Soundararajan left in Chennai Tuesday April 9 PicPTIThe 62yearold gynaecologist has never won an election before in two assembly polls and one Lok Sabha election in 2019 against DMKrsquos Kanimozhi in Tuticorin This makes her at best the third contender behind the two Dravidian heavyweights who have won here once each in 2014 and 2019 But Tamilisai does not consider herself a gatecrasherPioneering gynaecldquoOh I have lived here for 40 yearsrdquo she casually mentions alluding to her posh Saligram home ldquoIn fact I started my practice in this constituency I had three gynaec clinics here There might even be some firsttime voters whom I might have helped bring into the world I ran my clinics herendashfree for the poor I was a pioneer in ultrasound and this area might well be one of the first places to get ultrasound facilities in TN I know every nook and corner of this constituency In fact I wanted to contest here last time but I stood aside out of respect for current ADMK candidate Jayavardhanrsquos father because we were allies thenrdquo Besides the grassroots goodwill Tamilisai hopes she has another trump cardndashPM Narendra Modi He has already done a roadshow campaigning for her this weekWhile her opponent DMKrsquos incumbent Thamizhachi Thangapandian 61 has the luxury of inviting one celeb campaigner for each day of the weekmdashsuperstar Kamal Haasan one day star leader Kanimozhi the next day ally Thol Thirumavalavan on another and assorted state leaders to fill in the gaps Tamilisai thinks Modi trumps allPersonal charmWhen the PM himself is not campaigning for her Tamilisai is most at ease pumping hands and hugging her voters in oneonone interaction as she does her own roadshow Why did you give up the governor post to come and campaign in this heat one woman voter asks her ldquoHow else would I have got the opportunity to meet you allrdquo she replies bringing a beaming smile to the womanrsquos faceDr Thamizhachi Thangapandian enjoys a dig made against her rivals by a warmup speaker at a rally at Virugambakkam in her South Chennai constituency on April 11 PicKrishnakumar PadmanabhanldquoI like the personal interactionsrdquo she says when asked about the contrast with DMKrsquos massive rallies ldquoI like meeting people Also you have to remember that the DMKrsquos massive meetings are due to misuse of their muscle and money power The crowds arenrsquot organic They are all bussed in by musclemenrdquoBanger after bangerThangapandianrsquos campaign on the other hand is like an alltime greatesthits collection of election campaigning The DMKrsquos strong alliance for this election means she has Kamal Haasan on speed dial Fellow woman star campaigner Kanimozhi drops in to rally the female voters in the constituency As though that is not enough Thirumavalavan turns up with his lucid speeches painting the BJP as the allpervading evil that plagues India and how the DMKled in TN INDIA alliance is the last hope for social justice This last bit especially goes down well with the assembled economically weaker votersldquoThis is not a normal electionrdquo thunders Thiruma at a meeting ldquoThis is a righteous war for Indiarsquos future It is a battle between the mob and the people where we are merely standing by the people and the people shall win This is not between Thamizhachi versus Tamilisai This is about the RSS vs the People of India and we strongly stand by the peoplerdquoThe problem for DMKSouth Chennai has various middleclass and underprivileged pockets But it also houses posh neighbourhoods It has the IT corridor with over 6000 infotech companies of various sizes And to the BJPrsquos eternal hope three segments that have a lot of Brahmin votersCommunists Liberation Panthers and Congressmen put on a united show for Thangapandian at Virugambakkam on April 11This election the DMKrsquos biggest problem is none of the above sections likes to be left fending for itself wading through floodwaters and living for days without electricity Which is what happened during last yearrsquos torrential rains ldquoIt was a mess Socalled VIP constituency but no basic amenitiesrdquo scoffs Tamilisai ldquoStructurally the stormwater drains did not work There are some 25 water bodies and a lot of canals but none of it was desilted properly People sufferedrdquoThe invisible manIf you saw only the Tamil Nadu media for the last few days you could be mistaken for thinking this is a battle of two women But the third candidate or should we say frontrunner was the first to begin campaigning and has been silently hitting the streets for more than 45 days outside the media glare Dr J Jayavardhan 36 the 2014 winner is dismissive of the BJP and senses a lot of anger against the DMKldquoThis is not a threeway battle Itrsquos just between the good forces of the ADMK and the bad forces of the DMK I have 63 people working at the booth level in this constituency The BJP has none They donrsquot have a grassroots cadre All the buzz around the BJP is a bubble created by party president K Annamalai And just like the markets there will be a crash and the people will realise the truth about the BJP on counting dayrdquoTradition x modernJayavardhanrsquos campaign is a mix of the traditional and the modern Like Thamizhachi he starts early in the morning and visits earmarked areas canvassing for votes He takes a break for lunch and resumes ending at 10 And like the BJP he seems to have mastered social media doing a series of 13 videos on the DMKrsquos ldquomismanagementrdquo during the last five years including hikes in prices of milk water and other essentials He too harks on the poor flood relief workDr J Jayavardhan ADMK candidate South ChennaildquoShe doesnrsquot understand naturerdquo he says about his archrival ldquoWater from the north west and south of the city drains into our constituency And there was a badly executed Rs 1200 crore project to remove an existing dumpyard right where the water should naturally drain in the Pallikaranai marshlands She has not done anything about this incomplete project just like she has failed in executing other projects in the constituencyrdquo Despite middayrsquos attempts over two days Thamizhachi could not take time off from her campaign schedule to answer opponentsrsquo criticism of the poor handling of floods by her and the ruling DMKlsquoI bring hospitalsrsquoOn BJPrsquos Tamilisai pitting herself as someone who has practised medicine in the area Jayavardhan himself an MD in medicine said he was given an opportunity to contest in 2014 immediately after his course and he embraced it with both hands ldquoSee a practising doctor treats 3040 people a dayrdquo he said ldquoI as a policymaker have got the centralfunded National Institute of Ageing I have brought a Rs 40crore hospital in Saidapet a Rs 250crore ESI hospital and a R28crore hospital in Perungudirdquo Which all sounds like a lot of work indeed So why does he reckon he lost the 2019 election to the DMK despite all these projects ldquoSimple We allied with the BJP which was our biggest mistakerdquoStory of the seatProminent past winnersgtgt T R Baalu prominent DMK central minister 19962004gtgt Vyjayanthimala Bali INC Bollywood star and last Brahmin winner here 19841991gtgt R Venkataraman INC who will go on to become Indiarsquos President 19771984gtgt Murasoli Maran DMK ideologue and financial brain 19671977gtgt C N Annadurai TNrsquos first Dravidian CM 1967Nepotism rulesgtgt DMKrsquos Thamizhachi Thangapandian is the daughter of former DMK MLA V Thangapandian and sister of current DMK minister Thangam Thennarasugtgt ADMKrsquos J Jayavardhan is the son of former ADMK finance minister D Jayakumargtgt BJPrsquos Tamilisai Soundararajan is the daughter of senior Congress leader Kumari Ananthan6000No of infotech companies in South Chennai seat