February 23, 1998
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POLL 98:
ELECTION IMAGES Cont... Subramaniam Swamy Janata Party Madurai Tamil Nadu
The former Harvard professor's electioneering style is different: there's no mass mobilisation, few people accompany him. After a brief greeting, he gets straight to the point -- "corruption" of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's son Alagiri in Madurai. His Tamil accent may be funny but he gets his message across. As in other villages, at Attukulam too he gets loud applause when he talks of raising the height of the Periyar dam in Kerala which will benefit the villages in Madurai. Now if only he could stem the tide of the formidable DMK-TMC combine. -- K M Thomas and Anand Natarajan |
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© Living Media India Ltd |
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So what if he lost
his deposit in 1996, the maverick Subramaniam Swamy's reputation as a fighter has by now
filtered down to the villages. It's another matter he was hunting with the hounds then and
is running with the hares now. It was the Janata Party president's running battle with
AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha that confirmed his image of a "trouble-seeker". Now
the 59-year-old Swamy has patched up with "Amma" to contest jointly with the
AIADMK-BJP combine. "My image as a crusader and my standing as a national leader have
made it easier for me," he says. 
