Torch blazes a bold trail in Kanyakumari

The people’s candidate selected by Lok Raj Samitis of Kanyakumari District, T. Wilson, started his campaign on May 1st by hoisting the red flag at various junctions in Kanyakumari district and appealing to the electorate to vote for a new political process. He is being supported by various organizations such as Communist Ghadar Party of India, Lok Raj Sangathan, headload workers union, fishermen’s union, Unorganised Workers Federation, NAPM and others.

T. Wilson has been selected by the Lok Raj Samitis of Kaliyal, Kadayalu Moodu, Puthenchandai, Semmangalai and many other towns of the district. He is campaigning for a new political process in which people select and field candidates from among their midst, hold the elected representative accountable to the electorate and secure the right to recall him if he fails in his duty towards the people. Wilson has personally signed an affidavit promising, if elected, to work in accordance with the wishes of the people, to render accounts to them periodically and to submit to their decision to recall him if he does not perform in their interests.

The Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency has 11.6 lakh voters. There are 5.91 lakh male voters and 5.75 lakh women voters. It is a high literacy district in the southern most tip of Tamil Nadu. It is a very fertile district but the majority of the population live in utter poverty. There has been very little industrial development in the district thanks to the private profit-driven economic policies of the central and state governments. The farmlands are fast disappearing because of rampant real estate business, pushing peasants to bankruptcy. Because of mindless pollution, water bodies are on the verge of extinction. The rubber plantation workers, who are the backbone of the district, do not get paid even minimum wages. They are mostly daily wage labourers working in thousands of small and medium plantations. Other major industries are the coir industry, construction and cashew. The fertile hill areas of the district are among the most fertile areas in India, producing rubber and spices, but the fruits of labour go to fill the pockets of a handful of large plantation owners.

Having grown among the plantation and coir workers, Wilson is vigorously campaigning in these areas exhorting the workers to fight for a new political process where they will be the masters of society and not a handful of exploiters. The campaign trail of Wilson will also cover the large coastal area in the southern part of the district, where lakhs of fishermen struggle to survive. They have been opposing the encroachment into their area by huge trawlers and mechanized boats. On the 4th, the team of campaigners held street corner meetings at 20 important junctions in the district – Semmangalai, Melpuram, Anducode, Uttirangode, Punniyam, Arumanai, Kunjaluvilai, Kaliyal, Kadayalumoodu, Ambadi, Chittar, Pechiparai, Alanjolai, Kulapparai, Araganadu and other places.

The voters of the constituency are tired of the rotten lies that candidates of the big political parties such as BJP, DMK and others shamelessly tell them election after election. In their propaganda the campaign activists are explaining to the people how the ruling class keeps the people divided on the basis of caste, religion and party affiliations. Political parties of the ruling class spew communal venom during their election campaigns and try to set Hindus against Christians and nadirs against Dalits. The people have not forgotten the Mandaikadu communal violence engineered by these parties, in which scores of people were killed and an atmosphere of terror was created in the entire district. As the campaign van weaves its way through the thick rubber plantations and stops at bus junctions, Wilson explains to the voters that workers, peasants, youth, women, shop keepers, should reject this poisonous propaganda of the political parties and build their lok raj samitis, the makkalatchi kuzhukkal, to stake boldly for political power in their hands.

The voters have been responding to Wilson’s propaganda enthusiastically. Especially because they know that he is from amongst their midst, and will stand shoulder to shoulder with them to fight for their demands. He will not disappear after the elections but will continue to build people’s samitis everywhere and unite them into one strong irresistible force.