Madurai will witness a battle of professionals

Madurai has not seen anything like this in any of the elections, as the incumbent, Su. Venkatesan of the CPI(M), is a winner of Sahitya Akademi award; he is locking horns with AIADMK’s P. Saravanan, a doctor by profession and the BJP’s Raama Sreenivasan,

The Temple City of Madurai will be witnessing a battle of professionals in the Lok Sabha election. A writer, a doctor and a professor are in the arena for a threeway fight. An Assistant Professor is also in the fray.

The incumbent, Su. Venkatesan of the CPI(M) a DMK ally and winner of Sahitya Akademi award, is in the battle with AIADMK’s P. Saravanan, a doctor by profession and the BJP’s Raama Sreenivasan, a professor. Naam Tamilar Katchi’s T. Satyadevi, an Assistant Professor, is the only woman candidate.

In the 2019 election, Mr. Venkatesan defeated AIADMK’s V.V.R. Raj Satyen by a margin of 1.39 lakh votes. He will be looking to emulate fellow communist and partyman P. Mohan who won the Lok Sabha election as an incumbent. Mr. Venkatesan believes that he will win the election by an even bigger margin of not less than two lakh votes.

Mr. Mohan won the 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Madurai. He improved his vote percentage from 43.85% in 1999 to 56.03% in 2004. The winning streak was cut short by DMK’s M.K. Alagiri in 2009 who defeated Mr. Mohan by a margin of 1.40 lakh votes and in 2014 AIADMK’s R. Gopalakrishnan defeated DMK’s V. Velusamy by a margin of 1.99 lakh votes. Now, the CPI (M), the DMK and the Congress are in the poll alliance.

Dravidian stronghold

Madurai district is a stronghold of the two major Dravidian parties when it comes to Assembly election. It reflected in the 2021 elections with the DMK and the AIADMK winning five each of the 10 Assembly segments in the district.

Six of the 10 Assembly segments come under Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency. While six Assembly constituencies Madurai North, Madurai South, Madurai East, Madurai West, Madurai Central and Melur came under Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, Tirupparankundram and Tirumangalam come under Virudhunagar Lok

Sabha constituency, and Sholavandan and Usilampatti under Theni Lok Sabha constituency. In the Lok Sabha election, the Congress has won eight times in Madurai constituency.

Mr. Saravanan of the AIADMK believes that the fight is between his party and the CPI(M) in the Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency. A former MLA of the DMK, he was elected from the Tirupparankundram Assembly segment in the 2019 byelection.

After he was denied a ticket by the DMK in the 2021 Assembly election, he joined the BJP, of which he was earlier a member in 2015. He contested the 2021 Assembly election from Madurai North on a BJP ticket. He lost the election.

Subsequently, he the BJP and joined quit the

AIADMK in 2023. He had started his political career with the MDMK.

However, Mr. Sreenivasan of the BJP believes that there is antiincumbency in Tamil Nadu. He says that unlike the 2019 Lok Sabha election, which saw antiModi wave in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been receiving good reception in the State now.

The Mukkulathor community has a majority presence in the constituency. The Sourashtra community also has a considerable presence.

Madurai, the gateway of southern districts, lacks industrial growth. There are no big investments in the region. The national educational institutes announced for Madurai are yet to take shape. Mr. Venkatesan had said that when All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) are established, Madurai will transform itself into a major medical hub.

Only now there is some activity at AIIMSMadurai project and the NIPER project that was announced more than 10 years ago is a nonstarter, the voters complain.

The tourism potential of the district, which has been witnessing a good number of tourists in recent times, remains untapped, stakeholders say. Madurai airport should function round the clock with the status of international airport to facilitate better connectivity. All these factors will help bring in investments, according to Maduraibased trade bodies

Madurai was once a textile hub, but lost its prominence to places like Tirupur. Similarly, Madurai is losing to Thoothukudi in terms of industrial development. In recent times, farmers are suffering due to lack of adequate water for irrigation. If these grievances are redressed and the true potential of Madurai is properly tapped, Madurai could become a medical hub and a food processing hub. While various projects were announced under Smart Cities Mission, they are long overdue, a crosssection of the voters say.

When AIIMS and NIPER are up and running, Madurai will transform itself into a major medical hub