Rivals’ war raises heat in cool Nilgiris

Candidates of both the parties have earned the outsider tag as DMK’s A Raja is a native of Perambalur, while his opponent M Thiyagarajan of the AIADMK hails from Tirupur district. The former, however, is a known figure as he is contesting for the third straight time from the hill constituency. Thiyagarajan, an MP from Pollachi Lok Sabha constituency in 1998, is a relatively new face for the electorate. The AMMK candidate M Ramasamy, a retired IAS officer from Tirunelveli, is also an outsider to the constituency. 

Raja, a close confidante of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, won for the first time after The Nilgiris became a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes (SC) in 2009. He, however, lost to AIADMK’s C Gopalakrishnan in 2014 after his name figured in the 2G spectrum issue.

Locals said that Gopalakrishnan, who secured a victory riding on the popularity of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, turned out to be a non-performer. They said the outgoing AIADMK MP failed to deliver on the promises made during the campaign.

The Nilgiris LS constituency encompassing Mettupalayam, Avanashi (SC), Bhavanisagar (SC), Coonoor (SC), Ooty and Gudalur Assembly segments, remained a citadel of the Congress since 1957. The party’s former minister R Prabhu won consecutively for four times in 1980, 1984, 1989 and 1991 and again in 2004. The DMK, the AIADMK and the BJP have each won twice from the hill constituency. 

Except in Ooty and Gudalur, where the Congress and the DMK won, AIADMK candidates won other constituencies in the 2016 Assembly polls. There are four major tribes, namely Badaga, Thoda, Kota and Kurumba in the hills, besides people of other castes in plains. 

Some of the major issuesraised by the locals include low tea prices for green tea leaf, lack of industrial growth, unemployment, increasing man-animal conflict and the long overdue non-settlement claims made by people living on lands classified under Section 17 of the Gudalur Janmam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act of 1969.

M Thyagarajan is a former MP from Pollachi constituency. A native of Avinashi Taluk in Tirupur district, he replaces the sitting MP from AIADMK C Gopalakrishnan. According to his affidavit submitted to the EC, Thyagarajan had completed SSLC from the Government High School, Chevur in Avinashi. He is yet to complete his MA at Annamalai University.

Andimuthu Raja is an advocate by profession and a native of Velur in Perambalur District. He was first elected to the Parliament from the Perambalur constituency and was re-elected from the same constituency in 1999 and 2004. He won from the Nilgris in 2009. He was Union Environment and Forests Minister from 2004 to 2007. He became the Union Communication and Information Technology Minster in May 2007, following the resignation of Dayanidhi Maran.