The sixteenth legislative
assembly election of Tamil Nadu is scheduled to be held on 6 April 2021, to
elect Members of the Legislative Assembly from 234 constituencies in the state
of Tamil Nadu in India. Campaigning is
not exactly at its feverish best !!
There is the ruling AIADMK
alongwith its alliances of BJP/PMK and more and the opposition DMK with
Congress and other alliances. There are
parties aimed at specific religions, castes, locations, languages and more ..
.. while every and now and then the definition and talk about ‘seculiarism’
would hit .. .. in between, is it wrong to know more languages especially
knowing Hindi. There are many leaders of
Telegu origin and some were favoured to Delhi because they knew Hindi well - and yet a tweet from a political party
member and the fitting reply of a candidate made me post this.
The metropolis of Chennai
has 16 Assembly constituencies : Anna nagar, Chepauk-Thiruvallikkeni, Dr
Radhakrishnan Nagar, Egmore, Harbour, Kolathur, Mylapore, Perambur, Royapuram,
Saidapet, Thiru vi Ka Nagar, Thigayarayanagar, Thousand lights, Velachery,
Villivakkam & Virugambakkam.
Sadly, Triplicane is no longer
a separate constituency having been merged with neighbouring Chepauk and known
as ‘Chepauk-Thiruvallikkeni’ now. Nearer
is Harbout constituency.
Established in 1639,
Chennai Port is the third oldest of India’s twelve largest ports. An emerging
hub port for containers, cars and project cargo on the Eastern Coast of India,
the port now has three docks, 24 berths and drafts ranging from 8.5 meters to
16.5 meters. Maritime trade started way
back in 1639 on the sea shore Chennai. It was an open road -stead and exposed
sandy coast till 1815. The initial piers were built in 1861, but the storms of
1868 and 1872 made them inoperative. So an artificial harbour was built and the
operations were started in 1881. Being
an artificial harbour, the port was vulnerable to the cyclones, accretion of
sand inside the basin due to underwater currents, which reduced the draft. Sir
Francis Spring drew a long-term plan to charter the course of the port in a
scientific manner, overcoming both man-made and natural challenges. Inside the
Port stands a foundation stone announcing that on December 15, 1875 Prince of Wales Edward VII was here for the
occasion that would change the way goods reached Chennai. For, before the
harbour was completed, they were unloaded in Calcutta or Bombay and bought down
by bullock-carts.
Not a
history port of Marine post .. but one on politics. Harbour is a state
assembly constituency in Chennai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It
falls under Chennai Central and was first represented by U Krishna Rao. Mr M Karunanidhi won twice from here and K
Anbazhagan thrice. In 2016 it was PK Sekar babu who had been earlier elected as
MLA on AIADMK ticket from Poonga nagar and later in 2016 representing DMK.
There is sizable
population of North Indians too especially in Sowcarpet area. In
2016, BJP candidate garnered 13357 votes - 12.8 per cent votes and came third
in the race. Many parties try to woo
their votes by canvassing in Hindi and putting up posters in Hindi too !!
Sekar Babu (58). a
three-time MLA and also a local resident, will take on BJP’s youth wing leader
Vinoj P Selvam. The 34-year-old Vinoj is relatively a fresh face
to contest in elections and belongs to the family of Rohini Theatre Group in
Koyambedu. He has been the President of
Youth wing of BJP, has studied at School of Excellence in Law. He has been actively campaigning and his
cheerful campaigning has attracted huge crowds.
Many National leaders and cine stars too have been campaigning for him. There is possibility of Lotus blooming at
Harbour and at neighbouring Thousand lights where cine actress Kushbu Sundar is
the candidate, attracting huge crowds.
A tweet from Poet Salma
stated that it all looks like North with a candidate by name Manoj canvassing
in Hindi – those accompanying shouting ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ – making it appear
as if it is somewhere in North !! .. .. and the candidate with all humility
tweeted : my name is Vinoj and not Manoj as stated by you. I am a pure tamilian born in Radhapuram in
Nellai. Lakhs of people like me have
been stopped from learning Hindi as 3rd language. Come let us learn 3rd language
while loving our mother tongue Tamil the most.
Interesting !
28.3.2021.
Very nice
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