Know your candidate

P.K. Sekar Babu   

DMK candidate P.K. Sekar Babu, who had been MLA two times, is now contesting from Harbour for the first time. The DMK east Chennai district secretary has chosen the safe Harbour seat that supports a large number of Muslim population.

Babu was elected to Assembly from RK Nagar as an AIADMK candidate in 2001 and 2006 elections. He joined DMK in January 2011 and lost the RK Nagar seat, the same year. AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa won the seat in a bypoll.
 
Strengths: Sekar Babu has been a district secretary in both, AIADMK and DMK and is a hard crore grass root level politician. The financially strong politician is also a good organiser and enjoys good vibes with DMK leader M. K. Stalin. He is a good campaigner and commands over the party unit.

Weaknesses: New to Harbour constituency and has to take on the ruling AIADMK district secretary K. Srinivasan. Faces dissent within party as DMK old timers see Babu as a new comer to Harbour.

K. Srinivasan  

K. Srinivasan, a former MLA of Park Town now merged with Harbour is given the seat of his choice by AIADMK top brass. Soft spoken Srinivasan was recently elevated as north Chennai district secretary.

He did his schooling and graduation in  Chennai. Both Sekar Babu and Srinivasan were initially groomed in north Chennai politics by AIADMK presidium chairman E. Madhusudhanan. He was also a former syndicate member of Madras University.
 
Strengths: Maintains low profile, behaves cordially with party functionaries and civic welfare associations.

Spent most of his Park Town MLA funds on ICU of Government General Hospital and often conducts medical camps for north Chennai residents through Jain Associations. Believes in door-to-door campaign.

Weaknesses: Financially weak, when compared to Sekar Babu. Being a first time district secretary, he has to focus more on other Assembly seats in north Chennai.

X - Factor: Harbour being a small constituency usually decides its MLA with narrow winning margin and had also elected Independent MLAs in early ‘70s. With MDMK fielding a popular Muslim candidate Murath Buhari, he may consolidate a large chunk of Muslim votes in the constituency which is considered to be a DMK bastion.

In 2006, MDMK’s Seema Basheer lost to DMK veteran K. Anbazhagan by 410 votes. The constituency also supports a good population of non-Tamils settled here from Rajasthan
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(Compiled by C.S. Kotteswaran)