A gentle breeze moves through the streets of Coimbatore as dusk begins to settle. A white SUV slowly makes its way into a narrow lane off Ansari Street, just behind the bustling Nanjappa Road, where the city is abuzz with activity. From the vehicle steps a man in his mid-40s, dressed in a white dhoti and shirt, a red-and-black checked shawl draped around his neck. The atmosphere shifts instantly. Paper blasters send red and black confetti flying high into the air, while handheld streamers add to the spectacle. The sharp, rhythmic beat of drums fills the lane, setting the stage for an intense, high-energy election campaign.
“Vote for rising sun. I am one among you,” he says as he climbs on to his campaign van. Just in minutes he comes down from the vehicle, walks into a temple, offers prayers. And in next few minutes as the crowd begins to look for him, he is out there again hearing the young girls and the women around. “I am one among you,” he assures the women there as he begins to walk. Meet V. Senthil Balaji, DMK leader and chief minister M.K. Stalin’s blue-eyed boy from West Tamil Nadu, who has been tasked to win the Kongu region for the party.
He doesn’t sport stylish shoes or sneakers. Wearing a regular chappal, he goes door to door, walks down every lane in Coimbatore South, listening to everyone. Women wait at their doorstep with arathi plates. He stops. He takes their blessings and goes to the next door. “Anna. Please come to our house here,” a young man in his early 20s shouts from a two-storey building, He looks up, walks in and emerges out in a few minutes. “How can I say no when they are welcoming with so much warmth?” he asks, walking along with the crowd. Drumbeats follow him.
Jailed in a cash-for-jobs case following high profile, tense Enforcement Directorate raids, Balaji was once the political target, not just for the opposition AIADMK and BJP but also within his own DMK. His detractors wanted him to be away from the political scene. So was he for 471 days, inside the prison. Ask him, if he wants to be sympathised for his arrest and the many days he spent in jail. “It is all part of politics. Sympathy doesn’t add any success,” he replies with a gentle smile. Though he was sworn in as a minister soon after his return from the prison, Balaji continued to be in power for just a few months as the court asked him to step down.
Despite many ups and downs in the past five years, Senthil Balaji is an electrifying name in the western Tamil Nadu. He is someone who cannot be ignored or written off even by his detractors. For his opponents, he is just a five-term MLA, who had switched parties and a jailed minister. For his friends and followers in the DMK, he is a master strategist who can win the Kongu region – the region which the DMK had lost for the past three assembly elections. And for his leader, he is a doer who can bring victory.
Balaji, who is the Karur district secretary, might have shifted his constituency from Karur to Coimbatore South. But in Karur, his command and control still exists. In all the four constituencies in the region – Karur, Aravakurichi, Krishnarayapuram and Kulithalai – the DMK has fielded Balaji’s confidants who can retain the constituencies. And as the zonal in-charge for 35 constituencies in the west, he is confident of pulling victory in at least 21 seats down from Salem and up till Nilgiris.
When asked about his strategy to win the 21 constituencies, he shoots back with a smile, “If I tell that to you in an interview, it cannot be a strategy.” But when insisted, he says, winning doesn’t mean strategies, but building relationships with people and staying connected with them.
