Chennai: While the obvious contenders for power - DMK and AIADMK - are reinventing their strategies, a couple of independents have dared to take them on in this election. Slumdog-turned-businessman E Sarath Babu and social activist Traffic Ramaswamy are contesting from the South Chennai constituency.
It's not colour TVs and computers that these south Chennai candidates are promising their voters. An IIM Ahmedabad graduate who was born in a slum, E Sarath Babu, also has a degree from BITS Pilani. The issue of food security through education tops his agenda and with some support from his peers, he's confident of victory.
"We have been working very hard for the last one-and-a-half years and you can see the kind of energy that is there. At least 1,500 youngsters are working for us throughout the constituency and a lot more people - even without we knowing them - are working for us, so if everything goes well we should see a youngster in Parliament this time," says he.
Meanwhile, 75-year-old Traffic Ramaswamy is fighting corruption and money laundering by politicians.
Ramaswamy also has the distinction of filing over 100 PILs in the Madras High Court and Supreme Court. A few of them have even been brought in as legislations like the law making helmets compulsory and banning of fishcarts in Chennai.
"I want to eradicate corruption totally. Then I want that no region or caste should be taken into record during school days. That I am going to insist on if I'm elected," Ramaswamy says.
He is also the candidate who is perhaps declared the lowest assets in these elections - a mere Rs 1,965.
Victory or defeat, whatever be the verdict, these two candidates certainly deserve the credit for showing enough courage to take on the political bigwigs.
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