It's a battle of prestige and track record in lone LS constituency in Puducherry

CHENNAI: When two undefeated champions cross swords, not losing would be the primary intention rather than winning the battle. LS polls in the Union Territory (UT) of Puducherry is one such battle of two heavyweights, who never faced defeat for decades.

The Congress has fielded Ve Vaithilingam, on behalf of the INDIA bloc, who is the present MP and former Chief Minister of the UT. The veteran has a record of winning in 8 straight Assembly elections and one parliamentary election. The opposite camp has pitted A Namassivayam of BJP, who is a minister in the Puducherry House and won five assembly elections on the trot.

While anti-incumbency against the N Rangasamy-led UT government and BJP's Central government is expected to play a crucial role in the election, pushing it in favour of Vaithilingam, it is expected that caste dynamics would help Namassivayam.

Despite more than 50 per cent of the population belonging to the Vanniyar community, to which Namassivayam belongs, Vaithilingam from the Reddiar community still has an upper hand. His only loss was his first election in 1980.

On the other hand, AIADMK has fielded G Thamizhvendan, who belongs to the fishermen community. The community he hails from is the third largest in the UT after Vanniyars and Scheduled Castes.

Even though the fight is apparently between Namassivayam and Vaithilingam, AIADMK's Thamizhvendan may split votes more in Karaikal, where fishermen are facing frequent attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy. Apart from fishermen, AIADMK has a sizable vote base who would vote for the popular 'two-leaves' symbol irrespective of the candidate.

Women's votes matter

Out of more than 10.23 lakh voters in the UT, more than 5.42 lakh are female voters, outnumbering men by 62,410. Having 30 Assembly constituencies for a mere 10 lakh voters, the victory margin in the Assembly elections was always more or less 2,000 votes. Considering this fact, 62,410 more women voters is a factor that can play a decisive role in the outcome of the election.

The UT government has increased old-age assistance apart from giving Rs. 1,000 monthly assistance to women heads of families that are below the poverty line. Moreover, the Puducherry government provides Rs 300 subsidy for each LPG gas cylinder and free bus rides for women. The government has provided 10 per cent reservation for government school students in MBBS admissions after the introduction of NEET.

While many such schemes resonate among the women voters, the law and order situation in the UT is a sore point. Women are against the opening of resto bars and they are worried that drugs are free-flowing the UT. Namassivayam holds law and order and education portfolios in the ministry, which might hold him responsible for some of these issues. On the other hand, Congress has no anti-incumbency factor against it. The election manifesto of the party has promised statehood to the UT, which is a long-pending demand.

Influence of local strongmen

Political pundits observe that in Puducherry individual leaders are bigger than the parties or symbols. If a local leader is denied a ticket, he could easily defect to other parties or contest as an independent and still win, as proved in previous elections.Namassivayam himself was in Congress earlier. He was a contender for the CM post during the 2016 Assembly elections.