My previous posts talked about my disclaimer and a general history of Tamil Nadu politics. In today's post we will see about Tamil Nadu's South Chennai constituency. The reason to choose this is this is my home and also it is one of the populated constituency in chennai with various types of population. This includes IT personnel, middle class workers, daily wage earners and some of the old kings of Mylapore.
South Chennai Lok Sabha Constituency consists of following 6 state assembly constituency.
- Velacherry (Newly created, First Lok sabha Election)
- T Nagar
- Saidapet
- Mylapore
- Virugambakkam(Newly Created, First Lok Sabha Election)
- Sholinganallur (Newly Created, First Lok Sabha Election)
of these the 3 old dogs saidapet ceded some to velacherry and T nagar gave some way for virugambakkam. Sholinganallur was formed after chennai was extended.
Now let us see who are all contenting in this seat and little background of them. we will also see some of the lingering problem as i see because I have been living in this place for past 15 years and my uncle for past 25 years. Together we have see the changes in especially in velacherry area when it was a paddy field to todays town center.
Party
|
Candidate
|
Symbol
|
Alliance
|
Current status
(MP, MLA, other elected position)
|
Any one in the Party related to candidate
|
Presently living here
|
BJP
|
L. Ganeshan
|
Lotus
|
NDA
|
-
|
Yes
| |
AIADMK
|
Jayavardhan
|
Two Leaves
|
-
|
-
|
Father former assembly speaker and State law minister ADMK
|
No / North Chennai
|
DMK
|
TKS Elangovan
|
Raising Sun
|
-
|
North Chennai MP
|
-
|
No
|
Lok Satta Party
|
A. Jaiganesh
|
Whistle with a star
|
Yes.
|
Important issues in South Chennai
T. Nagar and Saidapet
- There is huge problem with respect to Traffic (Understand that this is a state subject) and place congestion. Central Government should provide guidelines on zoning and enforcing zoning rules.
- Mambalam railway station needs to decongested and this can be done by having express trains make an additional stop at St. Thomas Mount station so people going to west chennai will alight here instead of Mambalam or Egmore
- State Govt is building lot of bridges but the MP should take up issues like Rail Over Bridge near T nagar bus stand and Duraiswamy subway near Panagal Park. Those are the only 2 options available for residents of Mambalam to connect to T Nagar which is causing traffic snarls.
Velacherry and Shollinganallur
- There is unprecedented growth in these 2 areas and also unplanned. Recently they opened a new mall in velacherry road without adequate parking. The mall was allowed to operate before the parking was completed. MP should bring it up in the parliament to make Parking mandatory for all commercial buildings. This is an valid problem across the entire nation.
- Velachery Lake has dwindled in size. When I used to visit my uncle the lake was so massive and that was one of the deciding factor for us to move to Velachery from Trichy. There is rampant encroachment of the lake. Further, the lakes storm water drain is completely occupied and blocked. This needs to be addressed because this is the cause for water stagnation and flooding during monsoon
- pallikaranai marsh used to be the drain for velachery lake which is also in the bad shape. Center and state should work together to get the marsh restored and make be convert it to a ecopark and a birds sanctuary.
- Railways should consider a feasibility study for extending MRTS from velachery to pallavaram along the radial road. This would help in multiple ways
- Decongest Guindy and st thomas mount station.
- Easy access to airport for people and IT professionals flying out and flying into chennai
- Help people from the dacoits harassing and extortion by call taxi and auto, especially call taxi which is run by Karthi Chidambaram (correct the Finance Minister) who is also contesting from Karaikudi
Mylapore
This is the old and original Madras and because of that there was enough planning but there are lot of improvements that can be done here too.
- Infrastructure needs to be improved to attract tourists and add mylapore to tourists map. Important attractions here are
- Madras Day
- Aruvathu Moovar festival
- Kapaleshwarar temple car festival
- Old Madras
- The buckingham canal should be restored and inland waterways should be developed which once existed.
- MRTS access roads should be improved and the station amenities should be improved along with security.Also the huge station complex should be made into a fully monitored surveillance parking lot so people can utilize it and safely travel. This generates money to railways and prevents the place from being used by anti social elements.
- Fort Shore estate slum should be rehabilitated to improve access to Marina beach and beach restoration should be tasked
- Work with state govt to provide feeder buses to MRTS facilities.
- MRTS should be extended from Thiruvanmiyur to Shollinganallur to reduce congestion and take cars off the road and reduce global warming.
- Adyar river estuary should be desilted and restored. This needs in 2 places
- near MRC nagar
- Near Sathya studio
Finally some improvements as whole to entire chennai
Coovum river restoration should be taken up in war footing
Chennai central business district needs to developed to prevent companies gobbling up agriculture land.
Parrys Corner, Nungabakkam and velachery should be developed into CBDs with skyscrapers and companies should be asked to house their operations there instead of going out to wods and destroying agricultural land.
Parry corner should be developed into a financial power similar to New York and Singapore and Nungabakkam should be developed into a fashion capital of east and velachery as business capital.
Now my choice
I am in favour of BJP wherever BJP’s own candidate is fielded and I am not willing to vote for Vijayakanth or other party in NDA in Tamil Nadu besides Anbu Mani ramadoss (because of his tireless effort on banning smoking and drinking) and Vaiko for his fight for justice to everyone. Vijayakanth is a hypocrite and I was personally affected by him. His college bus hit our car from behind and the driver abused us for not violating the signal and refusing to come to police station. This happened in front of Chrompet police station and My Aunt was severely injured because our back windshield in the car shattered and she was hospitalized. Because of the college students in the bus who sat out to protest in favour of us and was ready to sacrifice the college if the driver was not held in the police station.
So I am not going to to favour vijayakanth at any cost and moreover he is not a fit person who had double standards taking about family politics and bringing in his wife and making his Brother in Law a candidate from salem.
In south chennai I will vote for BJP’s L Ganesan because he is a good person and lives in the constituency. Further, he is interested in the development as I have attended his meeting when he was BJP president of Tamil Nadu. Important reason is I want BJP to form govt if possible as single largest party or get support from few one such example would be is from AIADMK from tamil nadu instead of Vijaykanth who is a double face.