By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Chennai: From a student of political science to a full-fledged politician, for Thameemun Ansari the transition was not very difficult. Ansari, who is contesting on a MMK ticket from Chepauk- Triplicane, in Tamil Nadu assembly elections, has also been the general secretary of the New College Students Union. Besides he claims to have a decade of social service in his political resume.
A close lieutenant of Prof. Jawahirullah, the Coordinator of MMK, Ansari is lucky in the sense that he got the Chepauk- Triplicane assembly seat after it was denied to Badar Sayeed, the senior leader and close aid of Jayalalithaa, AIADMK supremo. What is more courageous about this 32 year old politician is the very fact that he is contesting from Chepauk- Triplicane, a DMK bastion.
Thameemun Ansari campaigning
Chepauk- Triplicane, the newly constituted Assembly constituency has been formed after the recent delimitation process though which Chepauk and Triplicane have been combined. Chepauk has been held till recently by no other than the DMK Supremo Karunanidhi. Chepauk is predominantly a Dalit area and Triplicane is densely populated by the Muslim minority community.
Ansari talked about the demographic distribution of different socio-religious groups of his constituency. The total population of his battle field is 1.69 lakhs out of which Muslims constitute 51,000, Dalits 40,000, fishermen eighteen thousand, Brahmins twelve and North Indian Marwari-Jains are around 2.5 thousand.
“Apartments for slum people in my constituency will be at the top of my agenda, if I get people’s mandate,” said Ansari who himself hails from a humble background. According to his estimate there must be around 20,000 slum people in his constituency.
Talking more about the issues in his constituency and his priorities, Ansari said that he will strive to eradicate the “DMK-nurtured” rowdyism from his constituency besides arranging for more flyovers in Chepauk- Triplicane.
Ansari specifically mentions his opponent and the DMK candidate J Anbazhagan (not to be mistaken with the senior DMK leader and close associate of Karunanidhi) who, he claims has a “bad reputation.” “The DMK candidate is a film producer who doesn’t have any background in public and hence naturally his words and deeds will be filmy,” added Ansari.
Thameemun Ansari’s poster
Most important of all, Ansari specifically mentions the need for more empowerment of Muslim women through education and proper availability of girls’ only schools in the minority concentrated areas.
“I want to talk to the Muslim Ulema in this regard in order to facilitate a consensus for modern education of Muslim women as it is only through education that they can be really and genuinely empowered,” added Ansari.
These days Ansari spends almost his entire day in election campaign. “I want to cover every house of my constituency and that’s why I wake up at 5 in the morning and go to bed late night. So I am sorry if I couldn’t give you enough time,” Ansari finally excuses as he has a tough job to handle right now.