Tough challenge awaits new MP

From fishing to farming, the economy is in doldrums putting candidates in a tight spot

Mayiladuthurai Lok Sabha constituency has voters from various walks of life including farmers, fishermen, agricultural labourers and weavers. Assurance on MSP as per MS Swaminathan recommendation, permanent solution from arrests of fishermen arrests Sri Lankan Navy and textile policy are the key demands of the electorate. This is indeed a heavy challenge for all the candidates.

Mayiladutrhurai LS seat covers two revenue districts of Mayiladuthurai and Thanjavur districts and with six Assembly constituencies.

The constituency was constituted during the third Lok Sabha as Mayuram until the 1980 elections and then it was renamed Mayiladuthurai. During the first elections in 1957, Mayiladuthurai was part of Chidambaram constituency and was held by the Congress party. From 1962, the Mayiladuthurai

parliament seat was held by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) twice between 1967 and 1971 and from 1971 to 1977, Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) for two terms between 1998 and 1999, and 1996 to 1998, AIADMK twice during 2009 and 2014 but Congress has a record of winning eight times so far: 1962, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1999 and 2004 elections. In 2019, S Ramalingam of DMK won in the segment.

This time, Congress has fielded R Sudha, AIADMK fielded P Babu while PMK in BJP alliance has fielded Ma Ka Stalin and NTK has fielded B Kaliammal.

Since the segment constitutes working class people, the major demand among the people is to uplift their economic status. The farmers from the region have long been demanding a proper water storage system for the benefit of the agricultural activities as they had witnessed several bitter experiences due to the uncertain heavy rainfall which failed to recede from the fields resulting in the damage of their crops.

Farmers from Sirkazhi who have experienced heavy damage during the month of January after the heavy downpour, have still been waiting for the satisfying compensation as the government announced compensation was too low as they could not even compensate their expenses.

While the sugarcane farmers who have been protesting for the past 506 days against the Thiru Arooran Sugar factory which was closed without any intimation to the farmers who have been waiting for a default amount of around Rs 100 crore. They have expressed their wrath against all the political parties equally as no one had visited them nor assured them of solving their problems and as a result, they have been besieging the candidates from key political parties.

Meanwhile, fishermen who constitute equal strength of the farmers in the segment have been demanding a diplomatic talk with the Sri Lankan government and get back their mechanised boats that were under their custody. They also claimed that there was no proper fish landing facility or diesel subsidy for their boats. They said that the present quantum of subsidy for diesel was fixed several decades ago and currently, they operate higher horsepower engines that consume more fuel and ask to restructure the subsidy.

Above all, the weavers involved in traditional Thirubuvanam handloom sarees making, complain that stocks of sarees have been piled up to the tune of Rs 102 crore, the highest ever in the history of Thirubuvanam Silk Handloom Weavers Co-operative (THICO) society established in 1955 and the weavers who depend on this for generations fear that this industry might witness a closure one day and seek the government to ensure support at least to ensure their livelihood.

They said that the price of the raw materials had gone steeply high but the life standard of the weavers has not improved. The silk yarn was sold at Rs 3,600 per kg till 2022 but now, it has increased to Rs 7,000 per kg. While the 240 grams (set of four bobbins) zari was sold at Rs 11,000 but now it is sold at Rs 18,000 and so the production cost increases. They demand the new government should re-define the textile policy and uplift their lives.