NTK’s North Chennai candidate hitting all right notes

Coming from a fishing background in Nagapattinam, Kaliammal an MBA graduate, has become one of the party faces for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and she is compared to her party leader, Seeman, as her style of speech resembles him.

Kaliammal is one of the 20 women candidates in Naam Tamilar Katchi in the state and is the only woman candidate filed by a major party in North Chennai. Though an outsider to the constituency, she has better understanding of the constituency and is connecting well with the locals.

Kaliammal gives specific promises for most areas. For instance, when she campaigned in Royapuram and RK Nagar areas, she voiced her concerns for fishermen and attacked the government for its policy of coastal regulation zone. “The Government has turned into corporate sector in dealing with coastal issues. Earlier, it was coastal regulation but now is coastal management which proves that government is interested in management like the corporates and not interested in livelihood of fishermen,” she alleged.

On drinking water shortage, Kaliammal said during a campaign, “Drinking water shortage is Chennai is artificial and increasing population is the reason as widely presumed. Government here have given away the ground water to corporates and wanted the people to consume water that comes from desalination plant. The waste from desalination plant will again be dumped into the sea and for administrators sea is a huge garbage bin.”

The speeches of Kaliammal had started attracting the youngsters and fishermen. It was obvious in the way her election campaign had been shared several times on social media and her speeches were made live on Facebook. The fan base of Kaliammal had extended beyond the party and many youths in North Chennai, who were party-neutral had geared up to support Kaliammal in this elections.