For DMK, south feels safe

CHENNAI: The Thevar heartland of Theni in southern Tamil Nadu was territory DMK feared to tread. But that was until the 2009 parliamentary polls when the bastions of the AIADMK came crumbling down. Now J Jayalalithaa has quietly packed up from her backward constituency of Andipatti, seeking a safe haven further north in Srirangam. And her opponent finds seats ripe for the picking down in pastoral Theni.

DMK has decided to contest all four constituencies in Theni district. Significantly, the party has fielded candidates in 36 out of the 58 seats in southern TN. And clearly, it believes the rugged, rural terrain down south may hold the key to its fate. In the sprawling Thevar and dalit-pallar belts, where wages are still abysmally low and poverty reigns, DMK hopes its free television sets, health insurance cover, rural employment programme and one rupee per kg rice scheme would warm the hearts of the rural poor.

With the chatter of the spectrum scam ringing in the ears of its urban voters, the party's hopes are clearly riding on the rural masses they used to be AIADMK's mainstay until the DMK's welfare machinery learnt to woo them. The anticipated shift in urban and rural voting patterns is what makes Election 2011 intriguing.

DMK, in the reckoning for 119 seats, has clearly placed its bets on the southern constituencies after losing its grip over Chennai, a stronghold for decades. Consider this: in the 2006 elections, DMK handed out just one seat in Chennai to the Congress. This time it has parted with five for the Congress and three for other alliance partners. Three top DMK leaders including chief minister M Karunanidhi have even shifted out of their Chennai constituencies.

All over the northern belt stretching from Chennai to Arcot, the DMK is just contesting 33 out of 78 seats. "Our alliance partners PMK and DPI are strong in this region and we had to part with some of our safe seats in northern Tamil Nadu," says a DMK minister. The party is not banking much on the Cauvery belt either. It has decided to field just 24 candidates in 41 seats across central Tamil Nadu.

As for the western belt, DMK has cleverly tied up with the newly-sprouted Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam after it suffered a rout here in the 2009 parliamentary elections. Yet, the party has decided to keep off more than 50% of the seats in western TN. In Erode, the party is contesting just three out of eight seats although it had swept the Erode region in the 2006 election.