Chennai: For many political observers, the contest in Ramanathapuram was one to watch out for given that this Lok Sabha constituency is home to Rameswaram and the Ramanathaswamy temple — one of the 12 jyotirlinga shrines across the country. It is also where detention of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan authorities was a key issue and where Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoped to bank on Hindu sentiments to weaken the AIADMK.
Another reason for the interest in Ramanathapuram was that the contest here pitted a former chief minister in the fight without the ‘two leaves’ symbol he held high for decades against an incumbent rallying supporters under a ‘ladder’ of secularism and a local AIADMK functionary struggling to protect electoral ground from former ally BJP.
Ultimately, BJP-backed Independent O. Panneerselvam was trounced by a sizable margin of 1,66,782 votes by Navaskani K., the candidate of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) ally Indian Union Muslim League. Navaskani won the seat with over 5 lakh votes.
Among the 25 candidates in the fray in the Ramanathapuram seat, only five were from the Muslim community. Besides Navaskani, the other four were independents.
Navaskani is only the third Muslim MP from the constituency since its formation in 1951.
Incidentally, except Navaskani and OPS, all the other candidates including the AIADMK candidate lost their deposits, failing to secure one-sixth of the polled votes.
The Ramanathapuram seat had been much talked about since before the elections on account of the importance attached to it by Modi who visited Rameswaram on 20 January to offer prayers at Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy temple.
But the outcome of the contest in Ramanathapuram is vindication for a section of political analysts who suggested that the BJP’s Hindutva poll plank would never work in Tamil Nadu as the state has always rejected appropriation of religion with respect to elections.
“Campaigning on religious lines has never worked in Tamil Nadu. Even the BJP people themselves would not have accepted that idea in Tamil Nadu, which is clear from the results,” said Arunkumar, a political researcher, who has studied the rise of BJP in Tamil Nadu for his PhD thesis.
Writer and political commentator Maalan Narayanan pointed out that the people of the state have such a deep understanding of ideology that they would never fall for the party’s Hindutva strategy. “People in Tamil Nadu, especially DMK, would often say that it is the land of Periyar. It’s not just political rhetoric, but in its true spirit,” Maalan added.
He said that Gandhians, communists, socialists and Ambedkarites in other parts of the country, by and large, would not vote for BJP, and in Tamil Nadu, one could add Periyarists and Tamil nationalist forces to the list. “Compared to other parts of the country, they (Periyarists) are ideologically very strong in Tamil Nadu. DMK members particularly, though they don’t vocally support Periyar’s ideas… everyone knows that they represent Periyar’s views on social justice, anti-brahminism, and are anti-north,” he added.
BJP’s Rameswaram push
Clad in a blue kurta-pyjama and wearing a rudraksha mala, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen taking a holy dip at the Agnitheertham beach in Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on 20 January. He visited the Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy temple (dedicated to Lord Shiva) the next day and took to social media to say that he would never forget that experience.
The temple is said to have connections to the Hindu epic, Ramayana. It is believed that the Shiva lingam there was installed by Lord Ram before travelling to present-day Sri Lanka. It is also believed that Lord Ram and Goddess Sita had prayed there.
Even during the first term of the BJP-led government, in 2017, Modi had visited Rameswaram at least twice. However, he did not visit the temple then.
“The Shivan temple at Rameswaram is just another temple for the people of Tamil Nadu. Like the people of Tamil Nadu visiting the Kasi temple in Uttar Pradesh, it’s the North Indians and Bengalis, who visit the Rameswaram temple in large numbers. Even the posters around the temple would be in Hindi,” said Arun.
OPS, who tried his luck in Ramanathapuram relying on his Mukkulathor (an OBC community) vote base, was backed by the BJP-led NDA this election. Though he managed to push the AIADMK candidate to the third spot, this is the first time he has lost an electoral battle ever since he first entered electoral politics at the municipal level.
Apart from the support from the minorities that the DMK enjoys, Arun pointed out, OPS might have lost the Ramanathapuram seat because of his ‘outsider’ image.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the DMK-led Secular Progressive alliance had largely swept the state, BJP-led NDA had managed to get only one seat — Theni — which was bagged by O.P. Raveendranath, son of OPS.
“In Theni, the people chose Raveendranath not because they really supported him, but because they did not want to choose an ‘outsider’,” Arun said.
Congress leader E.V.K.S. Elangovan, a native of Erode district, had contested against Raveendranath in Theni in 2019.
It may be recalled that after the announcement of the elections, Modi slammed the DMK and Congress for ceding the controversial Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in 1974. Sri Lanka’s control over the island has often led to Rameswaram fishermen getting arrested for crossing maritime boundaries in search of fish near the island.
However, Modi raking up the 50-year-old issue did not do much for the party’s chances.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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