Royapuram: AIADMK citadel in DMK fort
CHENNAI: While the capital Chennai had always been a fort for the opposition DMK even during the days of AIADMK stalwart MGR, Royapuram is an Achilles heel for it. D Jayakumar, the local AIADMK heavyweight, is a five-time MLA and had lost the constituency only once in 1996. He has been the MLA for the past 20 years and is now gearing up to fight the polls. While the AIADMK senior and fisheries minister Jayakumar has started the campaign, the DMK is yet to finalise the challenger. Notably, the DMK had always given this seat to its ally Congress.
“The high decibel constituency is known for congested roads always contradicts with its adjacent Harbour constituency, which has been a DMK citadel,” recalls Poonga Nagar Selvam, MGR north Chennai Mandram functionary. The DMK usually chickens out from Royapuram located along the Kasimedu fishing harbour and if the DMK fields its local district secretary Sekar Babu, then there may be a tough fight. Neither Jayakumar nor Sekar Babu will dare to fight against each other and both will prefer an easy opponent to retain their position in the party, Selvam added.
Coming from the fishermen community Jayakumar commands the major junk of fishermen vote base and this coupled with Two Leaves had always helped him to win comfortably from the less populated constituency. The winner has to cross 55,000 votes and the winning margin of Jayakumar had consistently reduced in the last two elections from 21,000 to 8,000 votes. “The last powerful DMK MLA was R Mathivannan during the early 1980s and he won the 1996 election. Since 2000, the DMK has failed to nurture a local talent to capture this AIADMK seat,” admits R Ashok, a DMK cadre in Sowcarpet, stating, “there is a strong anti incumbency for the sitting MLA and our party can win if they fielda strong cash rich candidate.”
Royapuram comprises labour-dominated Old Washermenpet, fishermen-dominated Royapuram and a mixed population of north Indians staying in Kondithope bordering Sowcarpet. As of 2021, the constituency has 1,91,206 voters with 97673 women voters outnumbering men.
The campaign is likely to be easy for Royapuram candidates covering less than two lakh voters. Royapuram is the fourth-smallest constituency in terms of electorate population and the candidates usually prefer auto and rickshaw as their campaign vehicle due to the narrow interior roads.