Parties hope to ride on anti-incumbency wave

As one drives down the state highways from Tiruvarur to Thiruthuraipoondi, one gets a sense of what’s in store in the Nagapattinam Lok Sabha constituency, the once CPM citadel. Farm workers, who were always busy a few years ago, now hang around against the grim backdrop of dry patches of agricultural fields with concrete pillars suggesting real estate development.Groups of elderly women trek long distances with pots on their heads to fetch water from aquifers.
The predominant sentiment in the reserved constituency, which falls within the Cauvery delta basin, is one of discontentment and betrayal. The bitterness over the 16-year-long wait for the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s final award to be notified in the national gazette, establishing the legal rights of delta districts, still lingers on. Inadequate supply of water to the tail-end of delta districts from the Cauvery irrigation system resulted in farmers waging a battle since the days of K P Kathamuthu, the CPI MP in 1971, recalls veteran CPI leader R Nallakannu.
With farming, fishing and religious tourism, the constituency, which boasts of pilgrim centres Vailankannai and Nagore, is set for a multi-cornered contest. The battle rides on a strong anti-incumbency wave against DMK’s strongman A K S Vijayan.
“The 10 years of UPA regime, of which DMK was a part, remained indifferent to delta farmers’ woes,” says S Sambandan, a Nagapattinam farmer. The crisscrossing of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) pipelines from Cauvery basin to CPCL’s refinery in Nagapattinam has been a concern for farmers. A year ago, the seepage of crude oil in Anaimangalam village near Kilvelur into paddy fields, triggered loud protests over the extensive crop damage. Farmers are now opposed to the methane exploration project.
Lack of industrial estates has youths migrating to Tirupur, Coimbatore and across the state border for employment. Vedaranyam, known for the ‘dandi salt march’, is witnessing another kind of revolt. This time, salt manufactuers are up in arms against the Salt Commissionerate’s hike in lease rent and assignment fee. A few kilometres away, the metre guage rail connectivity between Thiruthuraipoondi-Agasthiampalli has remained idle for years, forcing manufacturers to rely on trucks for transport.
The frequent arrests of fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy has taken centrestage. In Akkarapettai, the biggest fishing village in Nagapattinam, P Selvaganapathi, 32, vows not to go near Sri Lankan waters as memories of the dreadful night, when the Lankan navy took him and 109 others to Trinconamalee last December continue to haunt him.