Central Chennai seat may retain 'DMK bastion' tag

More multi-level parking & better roads to reduce traffic congestion, permanent solution to prevent flooding are major demands of residents

- MOHAN

AT 7.30 am, much before the scorching sun turns unkind, Dayanidhi Maran's campaign cavalcade enters a nearly deserted bylane of Anna Nagar. There is enough din to draw the unsuspecting crowds. The DMK bastion where the party won in eight out of the 12 Lok Sabha elections since 1977, however, looks quiet on the surface, barely revealing what is simmering beneath.

Like Maran, most of the 31 candidates in the fray, including 20 independents, are all out in the morning elsewhere, busy campaigning. Surprisingly, there is no woman candidate there.

With the dominance of the working-class in the north and the upwardly mobile in the south, the economically heterogeneous electorate of the constituency looks like a curious microcosm of Indian society.

What makes it diverse is the sizable population of Muslims and Scheduled Castes, concentrated in the assembly segments of Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni and Egmore (SC), respectively The constituency has particularly been associated with the family of DMK's late union minister Murasoli Maran. Barring 2014 when AIADMK swept the polls due to anti-incumbency, DMK has won all the elections here since 1996 the first three by Murasoli Maran and another three by his son Dayanidhi.

Even in 2014, Dayanidhi managed to accumulate 36.25% of votes against AIADMK's SR Vijayakumar, who won the seat with a vote share of 42.03%.