Manishankar Aiyar sitting pretty in Mayiladuthurai

MANDATE 2004

The AIADMK will for the first time contest the Lok Sabha elections from the Mayiladuthurai parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu.

If the AIADMK candidate, OS Manian, succeeds in unseating the present incumbent Manishankar Aiyar, it will be a major achievement for the party. However, given the fact that Manian is virtually unknown in the constituency, Aiyar is most likely to retain his seat.

Aiyar had won twice before from this constituency, first in 1991 and again in 1996. He had also been defeated twice, once as an Independent candidate and the second time under the Congress banner.

Historically, Mayiladuthurai has been a Congress stronghold till its split, leading to the formation of the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). The TMC won the Mayiladuthurai seat in the 1996 and 1998 general elections.

The constituency, which has 1.03 million voters, saw 63 per cent polling in the 1999 elections. That year, Aiyar had polled 3,24,000 votes i.e., 50.23 per cent of the electorate had cast their votes in his favour. Arul Mozhi of the PMK, who was the runners-up in the elections, had managed to get 2,84,000 votes i.e., 44.02 per cent of the voteshare.

Water for irrigation is a major issue in this constituency, which is heavily dependent on agriculture. The fishing community and weavers also form an important section of the electorate here. Fishermen are demanding a fishing harbour and weavers are seeking a reduction in taxes.

Aiyar is an Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1966 batch who quit the service to join the Congress in 1989.

Aiyar is known to "stay in touch" with his constituency. Congress workers say all the complaints he receives from people in his constituency are fed into his computer and follow-up action is taken on them.

His campaign, in fact, began in mid-January when he sent greeting cards to over 300,000 of the voters in his constituency, wishing them on Pongal (harvest festival) and giving details of the work he has done for them.

While the Congress has seemed to dominate the parliamentary seat, the Assembly seats in this constituency have gone in favor of the AIADMK. Of the six Assembly seats here, four are held by the AIADMK, one by the BJP and one (Kumbakonam) by the DMK.