Day after CM's visit, Stalin returns to comfort Saidapet

Chennai: A day after chief minister J Jayalalithaa made a quick halt at Saidapet in south Chennai on her whirlwind tour of the city, DMK leader M K Stalin on Thursday walked through the alleys in the same area which are synonymous with the destruction caused by the December floods.Stalin spent almost an hour entering houses and chatting with whoever crossed his path, underlining the point that he has sought to emphasise throughout the campaign -his willingness to interact and listen to the masses, which, his party says, stands out in sharp contrast to the “inaccessibility“ of the CM.Saidapet, which sent his father M Karunanidhi twice to the assembly, had remained a DMK stronghold till the 2002 byelection when AIADMK won and kept it for the next two assembly elections. DMK's former Chennai mayor M Subramanian takes on former finance minister and AIADMK candidate C Ponnaiyan here this time.This time the result in Saidapet, which was ground zero of last year's floods, may well be seen as the barometer of public opinion on the government's handling of the disaster.And Stalin is clearly working on it.Dressed in a designer shirt, his sleeves rolled up, he strolled along several streets of Nehru Nagar near Velachery Check Post, seeking votes for Subramanian who shadowed him.He shook hands with children and posed for selfies with youngsters. In a small dwelling, he sat for a chat with an elderly woman who had only com plaints. He promised that the DMK, if voted to power, will give flood compensation to those left out by the Jayalalithaa government. “I was thrilled to take a selfie with Stalin,“ said Nandha Kumar, 26, a techie and a DMK fan. Stalin accepted shawls from men and stood reverentially when women did an `aarti.' “The last big leader who came here was Kalaignar,' said Murugan, a resident. `But he too remained in his vehicle. Stalin came closer, by foot.“ At one of the pitstops, Stalin promised to slash metro rail fares.Saidapet has always been of sentimental value for the DMK, especially for Karunanidhi who would often launch his election campaigns from here.After AIADMK's Radha Ravi wrested the seat from the DMK in the 2002 by-election, AIADMK candidate G Senthamizhan won the seat in 2006 and 2011.“By fielding Ponnaiyan, a minister in the MGR cabinet, Jayalalithaa has shown how important the constituency is for her party. A hattrick for the AIADMK, looks tough as many see Subramanian, a resident of the locality, as a match for the AIADMK veteran. And if anything can tilt the balance, it will be the flood of last December's memories.