‘Change will happen through women’

Madurai

A 12-ft model of an LPG cylinder is being read at the CPI-M office in Mahabubapalam as a campaign tool for the party and its candidate.

“The size symbolizes the rising cost of domestic LPG cylinders and will power my canvassing in the coming days,” says SK Ponnthay, who has got a ticket to contest from Tiruppurkundaram assembly constituency.

Earlier this week, with her husband R Karunanidhi in the wheel, she campaigned in her autorickshaw and the news went viral. But she is not really happy. “Vehicles have been our source of income for the last two decades and I have been implicated in it countless times. Now everyone thinks that the wife of an autorickshaw driver has made it big! “She is sorry.

“We were both active party activists and met at the party office two decades ago, married and decided that one of us would be an active political activist,” the 46-year-old says. Her husband started living by driving an autorickshaw, while Ms. Ponutthai started on her path starting from her native Sattar in Virudhunagar district, where she joined the Arivoli Ayyakkam movement in her teens.

Her father ran a bicycle repair shop and being the eldest of six siblings, she dropped out after twelfth grade and joined the student union. While working in Madurai, she became a state committee member of the CPI (M) and the state secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association.

Over the past three decades, she has been a relentless field worker and full-time party activist fighting the fight against child sexual exploitation, violence against women, and for residential groups near villages following a ban on liquor shops on highways Transferring TASMAC stores.

He is a fighter, Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan. “She comes from a humble background and there is a refreshing change at a time when elections are all about big money and wealthy politicians only ride the auto as a gimmick,” he says.

“Ponnuthey as the grassroots female candidate shows the bahus ahead of the road,” he says and reminds Madurai that P.W. Mohan and N. Voted in the past for Nanmaran, an ordinary citizen with an ordinary background.

Against AIADMK veteran politician VV Rajan Chellappa, Ms. Ponututhey is unrestrained and banking on the trust and support of the people. Issues affecting ordinary, middle class and poor people are at the core of its campaign. She believes that the huge LPG cylinder model she plans to unveil on her campaign trail next week will be an instant engagement with the public. He said, “The MLA has not solved the problem of drinking water in the constituency, among other basic facilities and every election with more women voting, I know that voters will hear me loudly and clearly. “

Always a hard worker, it is no longer his routine to meet many people during the crack from morning to midnight, during door-to-door and other meetings. In the midst of her campaign, Ms. Pontahay, who filed her nomination on Thursday, says, “Watch for my new innovative campaign style in the coming days.” To bring more women into public service is something she sees as the key to progress and says, “Change will only happen through women.”

(Tiruppurkundram is one of the oldest assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu since the election of 1957. AIADMK has won eight times from here and five times from DMK. Dr. P. Saravanan is the MLA, who won on DMK ticket and now BJP Has joined)