"How can you come late and expect people to be waiting?" "The crowds were there saar, in the morning, when the rally was supposed to start," one DMK ( Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) functionary says.
The crowd is sparse here, and is mostly party faithfuls and passers-by rubbernecking to see what the commotion is all about. Setting off from the member of Parliament's office in Ooty - its creation and its counterpart in the plains, in Mettupalayaam, he claims credit for in his speech, as the only MP to have set up two offices in his constituency - at 9.30 am on Saturday, he quickly makes an unscheduled halt with a Jain monk before reaching Thalaikundha, the first halt, in his Pajero SUV. Having finished his campaign in the plains on Friday, Raja has devoted the weekend to the hills.
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There are 42 scheduled halts on the way - what his team calls 'points' - plus there could be as many unscheduled halts given how these things go. The schedule his team hands out for Saturday is daunting, and makes you wonder if he has got wings or if he is Superman in veshti. Photographs: Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Ī Raja's campaign day begins early, by 9 am. He must have addressed at least 50 small meetings from the van on Saturday.
Image: A Raja addresses a gathering of villagers from the campaign vehicle. The constituency also abuts Kerala and Karnataka, plus there is a healthy mix of migrant worker population from states, so it is very normal to hear a patois of all the south Indian languages in restaurants and other public spaces. Mettupalayam is in Coimbatore district, Avinashi is in Tirupur and Bhavanisagar is in Erode. And three fall in the plains: Mettupalayam, Avinashi and Bhavanisgar.ĭelimitation has also ensured that the constituency spills over into other districts. Of the six assembly constituencies, three fall on the mountains: Udhagamandalam (popularly known as Ooty), Coonoor and Gudalur. What is interesting is the punishing schedule Raja maintains in his bid for a second term from the constituency that spans both the Nilgiris hills and the plains.
Is he guilty or not, no one seemed to be interested in knowing.īut more on that, later. It is clear that neither is Raja defensive about the legal case against him, nor is the public that greets him on his many halts curious to know what the scam was about. So it was at former telecom minister A Raja's road show on Saturday, April 19, in Ooty-Gudalur, which forms part of the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency. If it is Tamil Nadu, the hyperbole must fly thick and fast, especially in an election campaign.Īnd if it is the election campaign of one whose name till a few months resonated across the nation for one reason alone, then it must have an extra dose of hyperbole. 's Saisuresh Sivaswamy spends time with the controversial former telecom minister's road show in Ooty on April 19. The popular perception is that Raja will be fighting with his back to the wall, given the enormity of the charges against him in the 2G scam, but all it takes is for one to follow his campaign trail for 12 hours to be disabused of such a notion.