Fishermen to field candidate in Killiyur

Chennai

Fr. A. Churchill, general secretary of the South Asian Fishermen’s Fraternity (SAFF), told DTNext that the candidate was yet to be identified adding “there is still time enough for us to do this.” This follows no  major political party volunteering to put up candidates from the Christian fishermen’s community which had more than 2.84 lakh votes in the Kanyakumari, Colachel and Killiyur assembly segments.

Fishermen votes in Killiyur, Colachel, Kanyakumari and Nagercoil were the highest among constituencies in 13 coastal districts, Fr. Churchill averred. Two meetings were recently held “where community members owing allegiance to political parties were convinced of the need for a candidate from the Christian fishing community,” he added.

Fishermen decided the winner in the above three constituencies, he said and added that in the 2011 polls the Congress’ John Jacob won with only 56, 066 votes in Killiyur when the total number of fishermen’s votes in that constituency was 57, 622 votes.

“It was a three-cornered contest then. But in a five-cornered contest the fishing community’s votes will surely matter,” he said. Though both Dravidian majors and national parties like Congress and BJP knew this well, no one had volunteered to provide representation for the community, he added.

Efforts are now underway for 100 per cent voting in Killiyur segment to ensure that their candidate wins. This was being done with the help of the Election Commission, he said.

The mood among the community was upbeat as they knew that total support would help their candidate win.

This in turn would ensure that in future all political parties accommodated Christian fishermen in the district’s fishermen dominated constituencies.

Meanwhile, J. Jordan Kanyakumari, a district Congress functionary, staged a fast at Sathyamurthy Bhavan in Chennai on Wednesday demanding that he be given the Killiyur seat. If he was given the seat, “we will ensure his victory as he belongs to the fishermen’s community,” Fr. Churchill said.