The Saffron Dare

IT IS A LITTLE past 7PM and the snaking roads of Kal­akkad are pitch dark. Home to India’s southernmost tiger sanctuary and a thriving biodiversity, this taluk in western Tirunelveli, one of the largest districts in Tamil Nadu, is watered by the Thamirabarani river. Right now, it is awash with political activity as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress make fervent appeals ahead of polling on April 19, with the AIADMK candidate, town panchay­at leader M Jansi Rani, also canvassing for votes. BJP candidate Nainar Nagendran’s campaign vehicle stops in front of every tem­ple, including the one dedicated to Krishna in Kalakkad, where a classical music concert is underway with a handful of elderly veshti-clad gentlemen in attendance. Offering prayers to the Lord, Nagendran, a hotelier, three-time MLA and former AIADMK min­ister, says he needs every blessing. After all, he is looking to win from a parliamentary constituency that has never voted BJP before. He needs to expand his party’s presence beyond the Tirunelveli As­sembly segment, which he won with a 47.2 per cent vote share in the 2021 elections as part of an AIADMK-led alliance.

Brahmins and Thevars—Nagendran’s community—are with BJP, he says, but the key is winning the confidence of Christians, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs). “I am the only man in the party looking at how to get votes that are neither with DMK nor with AIADMK, like Devendra Kula Vellalar votes, for instance, and even Muslim and Christian votes,” he tells Open, amidst hectic electioneering. “We have won in [neighbouring] Kanniyakumari before, and there is no reason we cannot win here, now that Modiji’s voice and message are finally reaching the people. I admit there is much we have to do as a party in Tamil Nadu, but for that we have to win some seats.” Recent statements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismissing the so-called north-south divide are bound to strike a chord with BJP supporters in Tamil Nadu, he says. “Now is not the time to talk about Central government schemes. It is a time to be with the peo­ple, and to take the message of the prime minister to them. One thing I refuse to do is make false promises. We want to establish more Central schools and Navodaya Vidyalayas in the state and make the Jal Jeevan Mission a success, but we cannot be sure of the state government’s cooperation,” he says, climbing back on the Isuzu that flaunts nearly every caste flag there is.

Nagendran is an interesting choice, and BJP hopes his experi­ence and the fact that he is not an unknown quantity will help the party. In recent weeks, the decision of former MLAs and local leaders to join BJP has been pitched by the party as evidence that it is no longer an also-ran. In Kalakkad, he does promise a hospital and train stops in Nanguneri before the campaign announcer, who seems to deal in superlatives, butts in to seek votes for their “dear beloved candidate”. People step out of their homes and onto the narrow streets as the convoy rushes through areas populated by Muslims and several churches, making a beeline for the next temple of Kulasekaranathar koil in Keelapathai. This is the land of a thousand temples, including several divyadesams—Vaishnavite temples graced by the 12 Alwar poet-saints of Tamil Nadu, such as the navatirupathi kshetrams associated with Nammalwar, and BJP is hoping to get a foothold here. Christians, who constitute over 11 per cent of the population, and Muslims, who make up nearly 10 per cent, are a significant demographic that Nagendran needs to negotiate by assuring that he will work for the interests of everyone.

“We have given 1.2 lakh drinking water connections to house­holds in Tamil Nadu under the Jal Jeevan Mission, constructed 12 lakh houses, and built 57 lakh toilets,” Modi said in a public meet­ing, his last in Tamil Nadu, at Agasthiarpatti near Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli on April 15. Along with Nagendran, the meeting featured other NDA candidates from southern districts, including Pon Radhakrishnan (Kanniyakumari), Tamilaga Makkal Mun­netra Kazhagam’s John Pandian (Tenkasi), Tamil Maanila Con­gress’ SDR Vijayaseelan (Thoothukudi), and Radikaa Sarathkumar (Virudhunagar). BJP, on a mission to hit a double-digit vote share, has pinned hopes on this region, though the DMK-Congress alliance is on a strong footing. Radhakrishnan, Union minister and two-term MP from Kanniyakumari (formerly Nagercoil), lost the seat to businessman H Vasan­thakumar of Congress in 2019, and then again to his rival’s son in a by-election in 2021. The former RSS man is once again up against Vasanth and hopes to consolidate Hindu votes in a direct face-off between the two national parties.

While BJP has hit the ground guns blazing in Tirunelveli, the Congress campaign is by and large tepid and largely dependent on its alliance partner DMK, with Rahul Gandhi’s public meeting in Palayamkottai on April 12 being an exception. Here, Gandhi touched upon emotional issues like Tamil language and identity, NEET and unemployment in an effort to drum up support for the party’s candidate Robert Bruce. After the meeting, supporters hang­ing about near the Palayamkottai bus stand admit that Bruce, who is new to the constituency, is not known to voters. Wrapping up a YouTube video, P Balamurugan, a social worker who has come with his wife and friends clad in saffron as they are followers of Ayyavazhi, a sect founded by Ayya Vaikundar in the 19th century, says they have spent their own money to canvass for Congress. “No other candidate or party has entered these villages. Surely, this will make a difference,” he says.

Political and caste allegiances run deep in these parts, however, and it takesa lotto convince voters to change their mind. On Kirubakaran Street, Old Military Lane, Palayamkottai, in a cubby hole of a shop that rents out audio setups for events, 32-year-old T Balamurugan is in the midst of evening puja, a silent aarti and dhupa offered to Lord Ganesha, Jesus and some Christian saints who share a wall. The store owner is a devotee of Saint Anthony, he ex­plains. “Many of us will vote for whichever party K Krishnaswamy (president of Puthiya Tamilagam, a party that has aligned with AIADMK) is with,” says Balamurugan. Krishnaswamy, who is the AIADMK alliance’s Tenkasi candidate—despite unsuccessfully contesting the seat for the past six elections—was instrumental in seeking to de-list Pallars and six other sub-sects from the Scheduled Castes list. This led to the Modi government introducing a Con­stitutional amendment to group seven SC communities under the umbrella of Devendra Kula Vellalars (DKV) in 2021. All three alliances in the fray this election are targeting DKV votes, which may well split among them. Interestingly enough, the row over Katchatheevu island also features the festival of Saint Anthony, an annual occurrence which Indian fishermen boycotted this year.

Outside the DMK office in Palayamkottai, 45-year-old T Narayanan, who runs seven juice shops in the town, says Nagendran’s accessibility and generous spirit will stand him in good stead in Tirunelveli and Radhapuram Assembly segments. A beneficiary of the PM Street Vendor AtmaNirbhar Nidhi, he has availed ₹4 lakh in loans. Narayanan supports TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) and says Central schemes like direct benefit transfer to farmers reach everyone, whereas the state government often discriminates to favour its own party workers. “I believe Nainar’s appeal this time can go be­yond simple arithmetic which seems to favour DMK-Congress,” he says. In Tenkasi and Thoothukudi, many BJP supporters rue the party has fielded ‘weak’ candidates. In Tiruchendur, waiting to pick up passengers outside DMK leader and Thoothukudi candidate Kanimozhi Karunanidhi’s massive public meeting, K Kannan, a 43-year-old auto driver from Nadunalamoolakinaru says he is forced to vote DMK only because the opposition’s candidates are uninspiring. Others say Kanimozhi is the best thing that has hap­pened to Thoothukudi. In Kayamozhi, a picturesque village in Tiruchendur taluk, people say both Kanimozhi and Tamil Nadu minister for Women’s Welfare and Social Empowerment P Geetha Jeevan, the latter represents Thoothukudi in the Tamil Nadu As­sembly, have been with them through thick and thin. When tor­rential rains led to floods and wreaked havoc last year, they were on the ground coordinating relief efforts and later ensured the govern­ment compensated them for the damages. The palm-fringed rural roads in this part of Thoothukudi are remarkably clean thanks to three-wheelers driven by women that collect garbage; there are schools with large play grounds and lotus ponds that glint in the sun.

In neighbouring Tirunelveli, however, there is discontent building against DMK, especially arising from partial delivery of its schemes, including the ₹1,000 monthly assistance to women. “There are very few buses, and no special schemes for fisherfolk who have suffered because of a reduction in the quantity of sub­sidised kerosene for fishing vessels,” says Arul Sona, a 43-year-old fish seller from Kuthenkully village in Tirunelveli’s Radhapuram taluk who is waiting for a bus at Navaladi. After selling fish worth ₹1,500, she has waited a whole hour for a bus. Nearby Kudankulam, home to a nuclear power plant that was delayed due to protests led by activists and supported by church groups, is fast becoming the cancer capital of South India, she claims. “Our problems are simpler to solve. We are forced to buy drinking water for ₹100 a day,” says Sona, leading the way to her house, where her 21-year-old daughter Prakasi is cooking fish curry over a wood fire in an annexe, their front yard crowded with over a dozen buckets of water. The village is painted with party symbols in every colour. Besides Dravidian par­ties, there is a diamond, a lock and keys, and the Seeman-led Naam Tamilar Katchi’s (NTK) microphone. Sona’s family has always backed Congress and she has a sister named Sonia and a brother Sanjay Gandhi. Yet this time, she might just vote BJP, she says. “My 19-year-old son says we should give BJP a chance. There has been no positive change in the coastal belt for years. My old, infirm parents don’t even get the state pension due to them,” she says.

Fishermen who are stringing nets by the seashore say BJP has only taken up non-issues like ceding of Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka over 50 years ago, ignoring real needs of the people. “Arvind Kejriwal slept with us at the Kudankulam protest. DMK gives our women cash transfers. What has BJP ever done for us? We need better boats, more fuel subsidy, insurance, protection against ar­rests by the Sri Lankan government, and reliable drinking water supply,” says 45-year-old Mariachan, father to three daughters. In Radhapuram town, 37-year-old Isakki Ammal who runs a small provision store says the state government should provide scholarships to students from low-income families who cannot afford to pay tens of thousands towards college tuition. Her son is completing school next year and she worries she may not be able to afford to send him to college. “My husband is a painter. My daughter wants to study nursing. We don’t know how we will gather the funds,” she says. Congress, DMK, AIADMK, PMK have all promised to waive off education loans in their respective manifestos for the upcoming polls.

The DMK government’s morning meal scheme for school chil­dren is a winner even among people who don’t support the party. L Subhashini, a 37-year-old whose five-year-old son Manikandan goes to the government primary school in Radhapuram, is a BJP supporter with the party symbol prominently painted on her walls. “We don’t always make breakfast at home, and even if we do, Mani prefers to eat with his friends,” she says, sitting on the threshold. “I will still vote for Modiji because he talks of empowering women,” she says.

In neighbouring Kanniyakumari, where 48.65 per cent voters are Hindus, 46.85 per cent are Christians, and 4.2 per cent Muslims, the religious polarisation is palpable, giving an edge to Pon Radhakrishnan. M Swaminathan, a 72-year-old BJP supporter who runs a small store selling bottled drinks and cigarettes near Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam, says the party should have fielded a younger candidate. “Ponnar’s only achievement is building the Suchindram bridge. Even local partymen are working against him,” he says. A former AIADMK man, Swaminathan has been voting for Modi late­ly and says there are many like him who can no longer believe in AIADMK, especially when it comes to the Lok Sabha polls.

“We want you to vote for change at the Centre, not for me, not even for your local candidate, but for the sake of democra­cy,” thunders Tiruchi Siva, a DMK Rajya Sabha MP and orator, campaigning for two-time Congress MP Manickam Tagore near a statue of community leader Muthuramalinga Thevar in Sivakasi. The town, in Virudhunagar district, is witnessing a high-profile three-cornered contest between Tagore, the late Vijayakanth’s son Vijay Prabhakaran looking to ride a sym­pathy wave, and BJP’s Radikaa Sarathkumar, a popular face on Tamil television. Tagore is confident of a hat-trick. “The Modi government’s failures, whether it is price rise or jobs, are the main election issues,” he says, en route to woo another community, the Naidus. He hands out a fat booklet listing his achievements and patiently listens to people’s demands that range from drinking water, education, a boost to the ₹6,000-crore fireworks industry that has been hit by raids, and a Supreme Court ban on crackers with barium nitrate. “I have been the voice of the people of Sivakasi for the past two terms and they know I will do everything in my power to support the industry here,” he says.

Thirty-four-year-old Muthukrishna Raja, a businessman from Sattur who owns 10 fireworks stores on the outskirts of Sivakasi, says he supports BJP but will vote for Prabhakaran. “Radikaa will go back to act in TV dramas but this young man has a lot to prove to the people,” he says. At the same time, he also claims BJP has a silent vote bank. “No one will talk about how Digital India has empowered businessmen. I do ₹1-2 crore in sales every year and the business has grown manifold over the past few years because of Prime Minister Modi’s digital payments push. While the bar­ium ban has hit the offseason crackers business, there are more stores than ever before,” he says. BJP’s ground-level messaging, however, does not seem to be designed to cash in on the ideas that have defined its vision for the economy, possibly because its organisational network is still growing. Yet, the party hopes for a search for alternatives among voters disillusioned with tradi­tional choices and BJP’s assertive cultural agenda will help make inroads into India’s southernmost districts.

2024 Elections2024: CountdownGeneral election 2024Kanimozhi KarunanidhiNainar NagendranTamil NaduTirunelveliUdhayanidhi Stalin