For Trichy, a vote for development

Trichy: In political parlance, Trichy is what Tamil Nadu is to India, with its secular and accommodative spirit electing outsiders and non-dominant caste members to politically represent it several times. It gave opportunities to different parties on rotation, banking on them to deliver on development. Yet, most times, the trust was not fully honoured by the victors. The 2026 assembly election is crucial to deciding the fate of many pending and ongoing infrastructure projects, on which the city's transformation rests.Over the years, Trichy has attracted public and private investments from Chennai and other cities in information technology, manufacturing, and MSME domains. In-migration from surrounding districts for economic opportunities and educational needs caused the city's transport infrastructure to choke. While the city's population has surged by 15%, corresponding growth was not achieved in transport infrastructure. For a city making headlines with call for ‘second capital of the state,' too much is unaddressed in infrastructure including incomplete semi-ring roads, no separate transport corporation, and a metro proposal hanging fire. Service roads for Trichy-Thanjavur NH are awaited for 15 years, and at least three elevated corridors are pending. The city's expansion plan is pending since 2011 too. The delay in expansion and decentralization further dumps investments only in certain areas like Kattur and Panjapur. In the last three assembly elections, nine assembly constituencies namely Trichy West, Trichy East, Thiruverumbur, Srirangam, Manachanallur, Lalgudi, Musiri, Manapparai, and Thuraiyur have elected DMK alliance MLAs for 14 times and AIADMK alliance MLAs for 13 times. Most of the new infrastructure projects have come up in the last five years, and DMK has already started promoting completed infrastructure projects for their campaign. Congress's four councillors, and six other councillors from the DMK alliance will come in handy to consolidate working class and minority votes. Having lost all constituencies in Trichy district in the last election, AIADMK is desperate to make a comeback, but it has nothing much to tom-tom as achievements. BJP plans to project centrally funded schemes like the new passenger terminal of Trichy airport to connect with urban voters.Seeman's Tamil nationalist NTK and actor Vijay's TVK will vie with each other to harvest youngsters in urban constituencies. ‘Let us vote for a change' is a common rhetoric for youths rallying behind NTK and TVK. But the likelihood of actor Vijay contesting in the minority dense Trichy East segment gives TVK an edge over the NTK. While Vijay who commenced his election campaign from Trichy last September enjoys women voters' support here, Seeman's recent state level conference held near Trichy last month to name candidates for all 234 constituencies has made an equal impact among youngsters too.Since 2011, parties that won most of the seats in Trichy city and UA constituencies have managed to form a govt. Late former CM J Jayalalithaa was elected from Srirangam in 2011 and went on to become a CM. Similarly, in 2016 and 2021, Trichy had two ministers in AIADMK and DMK govts respectively. For DMK strongman K N Nehru, a convincing win in Trichy West is essential to overcome taints caused by ED's corruption allegations. For Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, a win in Thiruverumbur may cement a position as the party's next-gen leaders given his proximity to deputy CM Udhayanidhi. For Trichy, the 2026 assembly election is a key platform to capitalize on growth by completing the ongoing infrastructure projects and resolving pending projects let alone making the city the second capital of TN.