In seat facing Lanka, highlight is OPS’s fight, not Sethusamudram or Katchatheevu

LOCATED deep in southern Tamil Nadu, a state where it is just beginning to make an impact, Ramanathapuram has long been on the BJP’s radar.

Under the UPA government at the Centre, it waged a battle against the Sethusamudram project to create a shipping route between India and Sri Lanka, whose one end would have touched Ramanathapuram, claiming it would destroy the bridge Lord Ram’s army made as per the Ramayana.

Last year, a buzz began that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government has been making extensive outreach to Tamils, would contest from Ramanathapuram.

Once the Lok Sabha poll battle began, the BJP rolled out yet another dice – accusing the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government of giving away Katchatheevu island located 33 km off the Ramanathapuram coast, and the ruling DMK (which was also in power in the state then) of being complicit in the decision.

In the Ramanathapuram constituency itself, which directly faces Sri Lanka, none of the above is an issue, despite it being a fishermen constituency. The most distinctive feature of the fight here is the candidature of O Panneerselvam or OPS, the man who has become the face of the transformation the AIADMK has undergone since J Jayalalithaa’s demise in December 2016, much of it seen as wrought by the BJP.

Having lost successive battles for control of the AIADMK – at party fora, and in courts – OPS has been forced to take shelter in the BJP-led alliance, after the AIADMK parted ways with it. The ex-CM is now contesting as an Independent, with BJP support.

Now making perhaps his last stand, in a seat that was won in 2019 by DMK ally IUML, and where the party remains strong, the 73-year-old is campaigning late into the evening, trying to cover as much ground as he can.

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