The buses to Sivakasi still play songs from movies that were popular 15 years ago. In spite of being known throughout the country for its printing and firecracker industry Sivakasi is still a town and not a city.
The roads are deplorable and there rubbish all over. Obviously there are no public toilets or even private ones. When the present government went in on a massive scale to provide toilets in villages it forgot this town.
Two years back the government had launched an ambitious project to build toilets in every home in rural Tamil Nadu. Toilets were built with a subsidy from the government. Though this did not succeed 100 percent it significantly added to the number of toilets in the villages.
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Garbage was piled up on the road. There was a woman and a dog rummaging in the garbage. The scene spoke of poverty that this industrial town had not been able to alleviate.
K Ganesan, a printing press owner, admitted that though Sivakasi is full of millionaires there is very little civic sense or social awareness among the industrialists.
Value Added Tax is an issue in this town. As the Anna Dravida Munethra Kazhagam had refused to implement VAT so those who did not want it would vote for the ruling party. Those who thought that VAT was better than the present tax structure would vote for the Dravida Munethra Kazhagam. They were also very happy with M Karunanidhi for declaring that he would see that there was no double taxation on any goods.
Lingasamy, a manager in the printing industry, felt that the opinion of the industrialists would have no impact on the elections. According to him the industrialists never bothered to go and vote.
An auto driver was upset with both the AIADMK and the DMK. He said, "The DMK took away half our business by introducing mini buses and the AIADMK took away the other half by introducing share-autos."
Mini buses were introduced by the DMK government to cover those routes where normal buses did not ply. Share-auto is a concept where big autorickshaws were allowed to ply on normal bus routes for short distances. Their fares are cheaper than even bus tickets. They were introduced by the AIADMK government.
In Sivakasi, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is pitted against the DMK. The Bharatiya Janata Party, Desiya Dravida Murpokku Kalagam of actor Vijaykanth, Karthick's Forward Bloc and Krishnasamy's Puthiya Tamilagam are also contesting.
As is usual in rural India, locals say that caste will play a crucial part in the final result. The majority caste in this constituency are the Naykears or Naidus. Vaiko belongs to this caste. Keeping this in mind the MDMK, the BJP and the DDMK have all put up candidates belonging to these castes.
The second major caste here is the Nadars. The DMK has put up a Nadar candidate. So many feel that while the Naidu vote will be split three ways the Nadar vote won't. Thus the DMK will easily win in this area.
Karthick's Forward Bloc will take away some of the Thevar votes which would have normally gone to the AIADMK here to its ally the MDMK. Krishnsamy's Puthiya Tamilagam will take away some Schedule Caste votes that would have gone to the bigger parties.
Vijaykanth is going to have an impact on the final result. Sharad Kumar's fan club vote will shift to the MDMK but the Nadar vote will not.
A Naidu voter said that they would all vote for the candidate most likely to win. So people who were dreaming about the Naidu vote being split three ways were living in a fool's paradise.
A Forward Bloc auto was canvassing for votes. The speaker was saying, "Do not think this is only Karthick's Forward Bloc. It is also Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Forward Bloc."
Many Jeeps were canvassing for the DMK. They all had big posters of M K Stalin. Karunanidhi was missing. The DMK was sending out a clear message 'Stalin is the next leader'.
The local municipal chairman is from the Congress. As he enjoys an excellent relationship with the DMK candidate, both parties will work well together. As it was a labour intensive area you would think that the Communists would have a big impact.
No! Say the locals. Though the Communist did have a lot of members in the working class, caste would decide the mandate and not the party.
All factors look like they will lead to a easy DMK win. But a firecracker unit worker added that the Sivakasi MLA has never belonged to the ruling party.
On the bus back home there was a VCR playing. They were playing songs from movies from the black and white era.
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