Every household in Tamil Nadu would have, at some point in the last five decades, bought some electronic appliance or the other from Vasanth & Co. What Vijay Sales (established in 1967 as a small TV dealership) is to Mumbai, Vasanth & Co (established in 1978 as a consumer electronics store) is to the whole of Tamil Nadu, especially the south.

After joining the Congress, proprietor Vasanth Kumar was elected MLA in 2006 and 2016, before becoming the Kanyakumari MP in 2019. He passed away in August 2020 due to COVID-related complications. In the resulting by-elections, his son, the actor Vijay Vasanth, contested the seat and has held it since. Vasanth, who is facing discontent among constituents, took time off his busy campaign tour of the Christian coastal fishing villages on Monday to answer mid-day’s questions.