Southern Shifting Sands

The dramatic polarisations in the neighbourhood are bound to affect the Union Territory which shares an umbilical cord with Tamil Nadu

By S.S. Jeevan, in Pondicherry

Sleepy Pondicherry is sipping a funny Congress cocktail. A strong bastion for decades, it is today plagued by intense infighting, somuch so that there are as many leaders as the number of seats in theAssembly— 30. The party received a record number of applications (nearly 400) for the 17-odd seats it is contesting this time. As the Union Territory gets ready for a two-phased poll on May 3 and 8, it looks like the ruling Congress might just about retain power. That’s because the opposing parties in the last assembly polls, the DMK and the PMK, have joined hands with the Congress this time.Andthey are taking on, ironically, another former Congressman, P. Kannan, whose Puthucherry Munnetra Congress (PMC) has forged an alliance with the AIADMK.

While PCC President and veteran leader P.Shanmughamassures there is no infighting, seat sharing has led to heart-burns among alliance parties, as the DMK asked for more seats. The Vanniyar-based PMK, which got the lone Lok Sabha seat in 2004, much to the consternation of Congressmen, had also to be accommodated, adding to the unrest among alliance party workers.

Chief Minister N. Rangasamy seems to be sitting pretty. His Government’s sops are being projected as the party’s campaign strategy. The growing economy is reflecting on the Government’s performance. But what will determine the poll outcome is the choice of candidates and also how seriously party cadres work as the campaign gains momentum.

The opposition alliance, however, has got a head start. It finalised seat sharing even as the ruling alliancewas struggling to find common ground. J. Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK is contesting 16 seats, while Vaiko’s MDMK and the Dalit Panthers have two seats each. Kannan’s PMC has 10 seats and it will contest on AIADMK’s election symbol. Interestingly, Election Commission figures reveal that the number of women voters has increased this time, while that of men voters has come down.

Pondicherry shares an umbilical cord with Tamil Nadu. Electoral results in Tamil Nadu have often had a spillover effect in Pondicherry—the Congress-AIADMK alliance in 1991 and the DMK in 1996. The recent dramatic polarisations in Tamil Nadu and the born-again Amma might add to that effect. “But this spillover will be offset by the first ever Congress-DMK-PMK alliance in the Union Territory,” says D. Sambandhan, a professor at Pondicherry University.

An issue dominating the electoral scene is unemployment, as there is growing disenchantment among the locals over losing jobs to “outsiders”. Another issue is that of elections to local bodies, which haven’t been held for over 35 years. Though most parties talk about it, there seems to be a quid pro quo among them to not hold the elections. “This is because they stand to lose power, as the size of constituencies is very small,” says Mannar Mannan, a Tamil scholar.

In many ways, Pondicherry only mirrors the scene at the national level, where multi-party coalitions have become the mantra. And multiple personalities are jostling to create individual space. But they also realise—like Kannan, who has a sizeable following—they cannot win without strategic partnerships with large parties. In this tourist haven where booze comes cheap and almost nothing gets taxed, no politician is resting easy at the moment. And they would rather wait till May 11—the counting day— before the champagne is uncorked.

(India Today, April 10, 2006)