A battle between a mentor, a former protege and others in Theni

High profile Lok Sabha contest in Theni with BJP-led NDA, DMK, AIADMK, and NTK candidates vying for victory.

The Theni Lok Sabha constituency, the lone seat that the NDA – then headed by the AIADMK – won in the State in 2019, is witnessing a high profile contest this time around.

This time, the BJP-led NDA has given this seat to AMMK founder T.T.V. Dhinakaran, who was previously elected as an AIADMK MP from the constituency in 1999 when it was called Periyakulam. The DMK, which heads the INDIA bloc in the State, has fielded Thanga Tamilselvan, a former protégé of Mr. Dhinakaran. While the AIADMK has fielded its Theni East Union secretary V.T. Narayanasamy, the NTK has fielded J. Madhan.

The constituency has a dominant presence of the Mukkulathor community, followed by Dalits, Pillai, Nadar, Christians, and Muslims. Two of the six Assembly segments in the constituency – Periyakulam and Sholavandan – are reserved for the Scheduled Castes.

Theni has a huge green cover with cultivable lands that depend on water from Mullaperiyar reservoir. The district has a few other dams, including the Vaigai, prompting the farmers to grow sugarcane, millets, cotton, and horticulture produce, and paddy as a double crop.

Traditionally, an AIADMK bastion, the erstwhile Jayalalithaa government’s victory in the Supreme Court in getting the water storage level at the Mullaperiyar reservoir raised to 142 feet, had led to the party’s candidate R. Parthiban polling a whopping 53.06 % votes in 2014. The AIADMK retained the seat in 2019 with former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam’s son O.P. Raveendranath Kumar defeating the Congress’s E.V.K.S. Elangovan.

However, with Edappadi K. Palaniswami emerging as the general secretary of the AIADMK and Mr. Panneerselvam, a son of the soil, being expelled from the party, things have changed for the party as the father-son duo are backing Mr. Dhinakaran.

A section of the voters feels that divisions within the AIADMK has given their chief rival, the DMK, a chance to cash in. Velayutham, a Theni resident, who has seen five Lok Sabha elections and an equal number of Assembly elections, recalls that the AIADMK had withstood the wave against the NDA in Theni alone in 2019. But the DMK government has attempted to win the goodwill of voters through various schemes.