Erode: There is confusion among the political parties due to the new statistics which have been released dividing the electorate of Erode East constituency on the basis of caste. This has raised the question whether ‘caste’ politics will take place in Erode East.
In the Erode East constituency by-election, the number of candidates of major parties like Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan, AIADMK candidate KS Thennarasu, DMD candidate Anand, Naam Tamil Party candidate Maneka Navaneethan in the DMK alliance has shrunk.
Voters have been divided area wise and polling station wise to elect ministers from ruling party and former ministers from AIADMK. Their task is to set up election workshops in their respective areas and meet the voters of the area daily to collect votes.
In this case, various statistics regarding the caste-wise votes in Erode East have started circulating. In these statistics, as the percentage of votes for each caste has gone up and down, political figures from outside the district who have come to the polls are confused as to which is the real statistic and whether it will be reflected in the voter register.
In Erode East constituency, according to the draft voter list published last month, there are 2 lakh 26 thousand 898 voters including 1 lakh 10 thousand 713 male voters, 1 lakh 16 thousand 140 female voters, 23 other voters and 22 military voters.
Among them, all the statistics show that the Sengunda Mudaliar community is the majority community. Next is the Kongu Vellalak counter and the political parties are confused as every statistic shows the vote percentage of minority groups including Muslims and Christians.
Apart from them, Arundhatiyars account for 6%, Chettiar, Naidu, Nayakar, Pillai, Vanniyar, Mukulathor, Devendrakula Velalar, Nadar, Brahmin etc. are at various levels from 1% to 5%, according to statistics. In addition, 3 percent are said to be from other Hindi-speaking states.
However, since Erode East is an urban constituency, there is also an opinion that caste-wise votes will not be recorded. According to the statistics, although the Sengunta Mudaliar community is the majority in this constituency, the main parties like DMK, AIADMK and DMDK have not fielded candidates from that community. Naam Tamilar Party alone has fielded a woman candidate from that community.
When former union minister Subbulakshmi Jagatheesan was asked whether the caste-based aspects would resonate in the Erode East constituency polls, he said, “Erodu East constituency used to have a majority of handloom weavers. At that time there were more people belonging to Mudaliar community. But now, it has turned into a ‘cosmopolitan block’ with shops and yellow mandi operators, minorities, teachers, civil servants and northerners living there.
Hence, caste-based voting is unlikely to take place here. The reflection of the DMK rule in the last one and a half years will reverberate in the elections. Therefore, the election result will be favorable to DMK,” he said.