Jobs force independents to keep campaigning low key

Coimbatore: Syed Mohamed S I, a tailor from Thondamuthur is contesting the election for the first time. He is an independent candidate and ideally should devote all his time campaigning especially when the poll fever is at its peak. But, Syed Mohammed is busy tailoring in the day, and meeting people only for a couple of hours in the evening.
Many independent candidates from the city seem to be indifferent to the serious campaigning being done by leading political parties and their candidates.Mohanraj K, 48, a security guard, only spends two hours distributing pamphlets. "I work from 8pm to 8am in Ramnagar. I do not have financial support like other party candidates. I am only distributing pamphlets from 10am to 12noon every day which is also sponsored by a well-wisher," he said.
It is not the first time that Mohan Raj is contesting the elections. He contested during the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and got 1,400 votes. When asked if he was not worried about candidates from other parties campaigning all through the day, he said, "I do not care about that. I love helping people and have been doing so for the past 25 years. I help children with admission to government schools, school drop-outs continue education, senior citizens with treatment and such."
Syed Mohamed resorts to meeting people in the evening, and that also gets cancelled if he has work pending. "I have some friends and neighbours who are helping me with the campaigning. We go from door to door and tell people that we will concentrate on the basic facilities if elected," Mohamed said. He has plans of organising a public meeting too.
On the other hand, there are independent candidates who belong to religious organisations, and are thus able to do regular campaigning. Kavithamani Karthikeyan, an independent from Sulur, belongs to the Indu Makkal Katchi, a Hindu outfit, campaigns from 9am to 8pm daily. "We have a van and tempo for us to campaign daily. We have reached out to 25 villages, 15 in Sultanpettai and 10 in Sulur," said Pon Karthikeyan, Kavithamani's husband. Kavithamani was a councillor from 2001 to 2006, while her husband has held the post for 20 years.
Karthikeyan alleges that the police and the officials of the election commission are partial with candidates from political parties. "On May 7 around 7pm, we were campaigning in Pappampatti, the sitting MLA and DMDK candidate K Thinakaran visited the same area for campaigning. The police kept telling us to leave the spot as it was inconvenient for Thinakaran," said Karthikeyan.
"Last week, I had visited the officials of the election commission to submit the details of expenditure. The officials should allow candidates to submit details in first come first serve basis. But, a candidate from a political party was allowed to submit the details before me," he said.