DMK Vs BJP – A tough battle in Ramanathapuram constituency

Visible symptoms for intense battle in the upcoming 2024 general elections started in Tamil Nadu now itself. The rumour in the political sphere is that PM Narendra Modi is going to contest the 2024 election from Rameswaram constituency, a spiritually important place in Tamil Nadu.

The rumour is confirmed when Amit Shah, the Home Minister, during his visit to Tamil Nadu said that someone from Tamil Nadu will become the next Prime Minister. In the 2014 election, PM Modi contested from Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh and bagged an overwhelming victory. In the 2019 election, Modi contested from Varanasi and additionally he also contested from Vadodara constituency in Gujarat. Modi won in both the constituencies and resigned the MP (Member of Parliament) seat in Vadodara constituency.

Varanasi being a pilgrimage site, has a lot of BJP support and the reason why PM Modi resigned from the Vadodara seat in 2019. Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu is also a pilgrim site, so the right-wing political critics are hopeful that PM Modi is likely to test BJP's support in Rameswaram also. Either way Ramanathapuram district is going to be a political hotspot in the 2024 elections.

Even though Ramanathapuram is a spiritual land, politically BJP doesn't have a strong hold there. Rather it is DMK members, Anitha Radhakrishnan and Raja Kannappan who have a strong hold in Ramanathapuram. On one side, rumours about Modi's constituency are spreading like a wildfire and on the other side, without wasting time DMK has started formulating strategies for the upcoming elections. For the past 2 days, CM Stalin has been concentrating on Ramanathapuram district and trying to win over its residents.

In the journey of winning over the Ramanathapuram residents, CM Stalin is visiting the fishermen villages and inquiring about their grievances in order to redress them. In the 2nd phase of election works, the workshop for the training of polling booth in-charges was conducted yesterday in Ramanathapuram district. 16978 polling booth in-charges participated in the workshop from various districts like Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Dindigul East and West, Theni North and South, Madurai, Kanyakumari etc.

Seeing from the current scenario, BJP is not even in the picture when it comes to Ramanathapuram district. On the other hand, DMK's position is well fortified in the area. Here are some of the supporting facts for the derived conclusion.

List of facts:

1. In the past 4 elections to the Parliament, DMK and its alliance have won 3 of them. In 2004 and 2009 DMK directly won the seats and in 2019 DMK's alliance Indian Union Muslim League won the seat.

2. In the 2014 general election to Parliament, AIADMK won the seat and BJP was in 3rd place. In 2009 when DMK won the seat, the same scenario was repeated. Only in 2019, BJP moved to 2nd place which shows that BJP doesn't have a strong hold in the region as the regional parties have.

3. Ramanathapuram has approximately 2 lakh Muslim voters, who support only DMK and its alliance. As per the election surveys, BJP doesn't enjoy the support of Muslims.

4. Within Ramanathapuram parliamentary constituency, there are 6 assembly constituencies and in every one of them DMK and its alliance members are serving as legislators. (4 DMK MLAs and 2 Congress MLAs)

5. The vote difference with which DMK won the elections in various constituencies shows the strength of DMK. The vote margin in Tiruchuli constituency is 60,000; 50,000 in Ramanathapuram constituency; 30,000 in Aranthangi constituency and 20,000 in Muthukulathur constituency.

6. In the Ramanathapuram constituency during 2022 local elections, DMK won in 5 cities and 9 municipalities and a DMK member became a Chairman.

7. Opinion of some political critics is that DMK doesn't enjoy strong support in rural areas. On the contrary, AIADMK won majority in only 3 out of the 11 panchayat elections in Ramanathapuram and DMK won majority in 8.

8. Ramanathapuram new bus stand was launched by the DMK government. Foundation stone for the new bus stand has already been laid, now the construction works are going on at a swift pace.

9. Kaveri Joint Drinking water project was brought to the Ramanathapuram district by the DMK government.

10. For the first time a fishermen conference was conducted in Ramanathapuram by the DMK government, in which more than 60,000 fishermen participated.

11. 50% polling booths in Ramanathapuram don't even have polling booths in-charges from the BJP side. If BJP contests from Coimbatore or Kanyakumari constituency, there is a chance for them to win but in Ramanathapuram BJP doesn't even have a fighting chance.

12. Under the DMK regime, Ramanathapuram district was included in the list of developing districts in Tamil Nadu. More emphasis was given by DMK to the developmental factors such as the medical field, education sector and local government in Ramanathapuram. Ramanathapuram is one of the popular districts for women scholarship programmes.

DMK or BJP? DMK in Ramanathapuram clearly!