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Once beaten but not shy, Shekher campaigns in Mylapore
Indo-Asian News Service

Chennai, April 10 (IANS) "I am a local boy," says S. Ve. Shekher, the AIADMK candidate in the Mylapore assembly constituency of Chennai who is also a film star and comedian.

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"The battle here is between the local residents and the DMK," he declares, though Chennai city is considered a citadel of the main opposition party.

His opponent is the DMK's D. Napolean, a popular actor and legislator from the Villivakkam constituency, north of Chennai, in the Thiruvallur district. 

In the 2001 assembly polls, Shekher contested against the same candidate in Villivakkam as an independent candidate, getting less than 400 votes. Napolean polled nearly 200,000 votes.

Villivakkam is one of the most urban and industrialised areas of greater Chennai and is a working class stronghold. It is also one of the largest constituencies with more than 800,000 voters.

The Mylapore constituency has been represented by K.N. Lakshmanan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since May 2001 but he is not contesting the May 8 assembly election. 

A lower middle class locality, with a considerable number of traditional Brahmin households and small traders who have settled in and around the famous Shiva temple of Kapaleeswar, Mylapore, has nearly 300,000 voters.

Shekher says: "I have lived in Mylapore since 1958. They all know me." 

Ask him what he plans to do for Mylapore, and he comes back with a question, "What is a legislator for?

"A legislator is the people's representative to the government. I will take the problems of people here to the government," he says, answering his own question. 

"Where else in the country is the bus fare 27 paisa per km?" he asks as buses thunder by and he kicks off a campaign round from one of the busiest city streets on the banks of the temple tank. 

As Shekher and his motley group of followers make their way through narrow crowded streets around the temple, piled high with Neelam mangoes, the smell of ripe jackfruit mingles with the aroma of filter coffee.

Mylapore, a more than 2,000-year-old neighbourhood that was the home of Tamil savant Thiruvalluvar and St Thomas, is about two kilometres away from the coast that was hit by a tsunami in December 2004. 

"As many as 45,000 people from Mylapore area have benefited from the tsunami and flood relief measures," Shekher tells IANS.

Says Rose Mary, a local resident: "We got Rs.2,000, our girls got bicycles and rice and kerosene." The relief came to the people cutting across party and religion.

It is in this backdrop that Shekher and Napolean are fighting it out.

On hoardings in Mylapore, Rajnikanth pictures advertise the superstar's film "Sivaji", but there are no pictures of the two candidates. 

Napolean's office is as indolent as any film star's office, giving no hint that this is an election candidate's office. But an upbeat Napolean says: "I will begin my campaign by April 14, my party office in Mylapore will be set up on Tuesday." 

He has reason to be confident after beating Shekher in the last contest.

As the last rays of the sun kiss the temple Gopuram, Shekher, famous for his onscreen punch lines, however, delivers one for the campaign trail. "When god is with me, who can be against me?"