'Learned Chettiar' P Chidambaram well respected in Kandanur village

KARAIKUDI: The din of electioneering is muted in this sedate, agrarian town. Dotted with stately Chettinad mansions and sun-scorched fields, Karaikudi in Sivaganga district appears numbed under the blazing noon heat. Like elsewhere in TN, campaigns begin at crack of dawn and are wound up by noon, only to pick up after 4pm. Kandanur, native village of former finance minister P Chidambaram, sizzles in the heat. The Congress veteran has of late been in the news over the Ishrat Jahan controversy.
Around 15km from Karaikudi, Kandanur hasn't heard of Ishrat Jahan or reports about PC's son Karti coming under the Enforcement Directorate's scanner. The “learned chettiar“ is well respected. On Motilal Street lives his most ardent fan, neighbour and uncle 86-year old Komathi Chettiar.

“What controversy? These are all concocted tales,“ he says, relaxing in a planter's chair on the porch of his 100-year-old home with 12 bedrooms, a courtyard and Burma teak doors. Adjoining his house is a similar dwelling. It's PC's, freshly painted in blue and beige. Chidambaram's grandfather Lakshmanan and Komathi's father Subramanian were brothers. “No one lives in Chidambaram's home now, barring a caretaker. Two years ago they built a farmhouse in Managiri (near Karaikudi). They prefer to live there. But, he never fails to call me,“ says Komathi Chettiar.

What does he think of the poll prospects of his nephew's party?

“The Congress candidate will surely win in Karaikudi. Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi should not come to power. It's time for Chidambaram to become CM and even PM,“ says Komathi Chettiar.

Not all Chettiars in the village are so devoted to PC. Says PC's neighbour M Ramanathan: “People here haven't heard of Ishrat Jahan or any other case. They respect him but there's some unhappiness.“

“He's a geni us, but hasn't done much for his village,“ Ramanathan, who runs a silverware manufacturing unit in an old Chettinad building, adds.

In contrast, the district Congress Committee office in Karaikudi, housed in an old, freshly-painted Chettinad home, bustles with activity .

Local party president P Sathyamurthy says Chidambaram has a packed schedule in the region in the days to come. He will chair meetings of the Youth and Mahila Congress at Karaikudi. Supporters say his presence is urgently needed in Karaikudi to boost candidate K R Ramasamy's prospects.