In Kolathur, Stalin’s been the go-to man

The quiet middle class enclave of Kolathur, an abode of the retired tucked away on the Kolkata Highway, would miss one’s eyes unless one stops for some compelling reason. But ever since he contested the 2011 assembly election from here, it has been the first stop for DMK treasurer M K Stalin.
In 2011, pitted against the present mayor of Chennai, Saidai S Duraisamy, Stalin managed a slender margin of 2,734 votes, but has since been in constant touch with the electorate by organizing grievance redressal meetings, introducing a toll-free helpline and reaching out on social media.
Stalin’s template of nurturing a constituency is a model worth emulating. "If only other MLAs copy it, they need not bother about elections. Despite getting very little help from the government, he has been meeting residents every week and listening to their grievances for the past five years," said M Kasinathan, an analyst. Stalin allocated his MLA local area development fund for projects based on his voters’ choices.
He infused professionalism into constituency care by roping in a private agency. While the agency handled the helpline and organized meetings and interactive sessions, 12 people on bikes kept chasing officials to get complaints attended to. Once, Stalin himself went to Metrowater MD’s office demanding action on complaints. The state-wide interactive campaigns Stalin carried out last year were an extension of his Kolathur experiment.
Of the 4,000 complaints received in Kolathur, about 1,700 have been redressed, said his office. Many are pending with the government.
Wading through flood water and sewage, Stalin was at the doorstep of every voter in Kolathur during the recent deluge to help. He distributed milk, water and other relief material and ran seven community kitchens for 10 days to feed 20,000 people three times a day. The name Kolathur means land of ponds, and Stalin had criticized Chennai corporation’s poor flood preparedness in August 2014.
His tryst with Kolathur started with a court battle to get an MLA office. After the office was set up, Chennai corporation dumped garbage in an adjacent playground to chase Stalin away. Only after the local residents took up cudgels did the civic agency stop this, said M Murugesan, president of Jawahar Nagar Exnora.
Stalin’s campaign manager and party district secretary P K Sekarbabu says, "Victory is sure for Thalapathi (Stalin) because he is seeking votes only after working for the same voters for five years." The ruling AIADMK has fielded J C D Prabhakar, an MGR loyalist, and Vijayakanth’s DMDK has fielded P Mathivanan, its district secretary. Kolathur is neither a DMK citadel nor are the voters die-hard supporters of the party, but they are likely to elect Stalin as he has stood by them in times of crisis.