The perpetual candidate’s pre-poll failure

How Dr K Padmarajan, who has contested 165 elections so far, had to beat a retreat from Maharashtra

“It’s the first time I contested in Maharashtra. I put in my nomination papers and stayed there for a week to pay the deposit amount of Rs 25,000 and get 10 local proposers as per the rules. I had a shock when members of the ruling party threatened me to withdraw my nomination and forced ten of my proposers not to back me. We were physically prevented from meeting the returning officer,” he states. “When I left the town due to the threat to my life, my candidature was rejected on the technical ground that I did not have the backing of 10 citizens from the constituency,’’ he says from his home in Tamil Nadu, to where he beat a hasty retreat.

Padmarajan says he started contesting in 1991 against the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. The last election he contested was against Narendra Modi in Vadodara. His opponents include 12 chief ministers and he clearly enjoys being in the fray despite having lost Rs 15 lakh in deposits. “Only polls to posts in the Rajya Sabha, Vice President and President are refundable,’’ he laughs.

A tyre trader by profession in Tamil Nadu, Padmarajan studied homeopathy and even to this day dispenses free medicines. He says he is currently pursuing an MA in History. In the last Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, he got 6,273 votes, polling the third highest in the constituency and highest as an independent in the state, he claims.