People's Democracy

TAMILNADU

Left Strength Goes up in Assembly

S P Rajendran

THE strength of the Left parties in Tamilnadu state assembly has gone up to 20 seats now, 5 up from the 15 in the last assembly. While the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has won 10 seats out of the 12 which it contested, the Communist Party of India contested 10 seats and won 9. The All India Forward Bloc has won the Usilampatti constituency.

The CPI(M)’s A Soundararajan, K Balakrishnan, K Thangavel, A Lazer, K Balabarathi, P Dillibabu, K Bhimrao, R Ramamurthy, R Annadurai and V P Mahalingam alias Nagai Mali have won from the Perambur, Chidambaram, Tirupur South, Periyakulam, Dindigul, Harur, Maduravoyal, Vikkiravandi, Madurai South and Kilvelur constituencies respectively. The first four of these winners are state secretariat members of the party.

R Leemarose could not enter the state assembly from Vilavancode and V Palani from Palayankottai. Palani suffered defeat by a narrow margin of only 605 votes.

Among the winning CPI(M) candidates, K Thangavel, K Balabarathi and R Annadurai defeated their nearest rivals by a margin of more than 35,000 votes each. Balabarathi, leader of the CPI(M) group in the last assembly leader, performed a hat-trick in Dindigul.

Welcoming these results, CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan conveyed gratitude to the people of Tamilnadu. “We will work as a constructive opposition,” he told a press conference at Chennai on May 15. He was briefing the media persons on the decisions of the state secretariat of the party that met in the morning and the newly elected MLAs who met in the afternoon. As the people had very high expectations from the new government, he said the CPI(M) would extend support to all the pro-people initiatives of the new government.

At the meeting, A Soundararajan was elected leader of the CPI(M) legislature party while K Balabharathi will be the deputy leader. K Balakrishnan was chosen as the party’s whip.

Ramakrishnan observed that the failure of the ruling DMK party in Tamilnadu to understand the day-to-day problems facing the common man, such as price rise, power cut and law and order, and its attempt to buy votes had led to a drubbing of the DMK-led alliance. Besides, the issues of corruption and nepotism had a very big impact, he said.

He said the CPI(M) would strive to immediately to attract the government’s attention to the need to address the power shortage and the law and order situation. Another pressing issue is of the closed-down dyeing units that has jeopardised the livelihood of a number of people in the western region of the state. To a question, Ramakrishnan said a number of industries near Chennai, especially on the Sriperumbudur road, were not allowing the formation of unions. Even when a union was formed in an industrial unit, it led to victimisations, he alleged.

A Soundararajan said the party would see to it that the basic rights of the workmen were ensured.

The details of the votes polled by winning CPI(M) candidates are as below.

1) Perambur

A Soundararajan, CPI(M), 84,668  

N R Dhanapalan, DMK, 67,245

2) Chidambaram

K Balakrishnan, CPI(M), 71,916

G M Sridhar Vandaiyar, DMK, 68,874

3) Tirupur South

K Thangavel, CPI(M), 75,424

K Senthilkumar, Congress, 37,121

4) Periyakulam

A Laser, CPI(M), 76,687

V Anbazhagan, DMK, 71,046

5) Dindigul

K Balabharathi, CPI(M), 85,504

J Paul Baskar, PMK, 46,222

6) Harur

P Dillibabu, CPI(M), 77,703

B M Nandhan, VCK, 51,200

7) Maduravoyal

G Bhim Rao, CPI(M), 96,844

K Selvam, PMK, 72,833

8) Vikravandi

R Ramamurthy, CPI(M), 78,656

K Rathamani, DMK, 63,759

9) Madurai South

R Annadurai, CPI(M), 83,441

S P Varadharajan, Congress, 37,990

10) Kilvelur

P Mahalingam, CPI(M), 59,402

U Mathivanan, DMK, 58,678