On Sunday morning, the streets of Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar (R K Nagar) were busy. Around 10 people were jogging along Ennore High Road. Several men in their 50s and 60s walked on the road as there were no pavements. In the Tsunami Quarters at New Washermenpet, residents queued up with buckets as a water lorry filled a public tank. At the railway gate on the high road towards Tiruvottiyur, vehicles piled up for nearly 40 minutes for a train to pass.But political campaigning is lacklustre; a far cry from the high visibility byelections that made the constituency famous. It started with then chief minister J Jayalalithaa‘s decision to contest the 2015 byelection from R K Nagar, a stronghold of her party. DMK boycotted the election, and Jayalalithaa won by 1.5lakh votes. CPI candidate C Mahendran got just 9,710 votes.The second byelection after Jayalalithaa’s death made the constituency a household name for the wrong reasons. It became a byword for cash-for-votes, and the Election Commission cancelled the election, which T T V Dhinakaran won later. “There were visible improvements after the victory of Jayalalithaa. We got housing board flats with basic facilities. But after Dhinakaran’s win in 2017, the attention for the constituency declined,” said M N Ramesh, an AIADMK functionary.Nearly a decade later, residents across R K Nagar say everything has gone to seed. “In our area, it is easier to buy drugs than groceries. I see children smoking and consuming alcohol every day. There is no proper patrolling or action,” said M Charles, an auto driver from R K Nagar.Jayalalithaa’s victory had brought much-needed attention to the constituency with a larger fishermen population, port-linked labour and resettlement colonies.“Before 2015, the R K Nagar constituency was considered a slum area. When Jayalalithaa became MLA, even small issues were sorted immediately,” said R Loganathan, district executive committee member of CPM. “In 2016, large-scale resettlement colonies were built. However, after Jayalalithaa’s demise, even AIADMK ignored this constituency,” he added.DMK won for the first time in 20 years in 2021. In the past five years, several long-pending issues, including flyovers over railway crossings at Ezhil Nagar, Korukkupet and a new bus stand at IOC Nagar and a new bus terminus in Tondiarpet, have been addressed. A sports complex was also built. But legacy issues such as drug abuse, lack of piped water supply, traffic due to railway crossings, and bad roads persist.DMK has fielded sitting MLA J John Ebenezer, while AIADMK has given the ticket to R S Rajesh, who lost in the previous election. TVK candidate N Marie Wilson, managing director of Jeppiaar Institute of Technology, and NTK’s Vennila Thayumanavan, an environmental activist, are both known faces. K Shanthi, a sanitary worker and a resident of Annai Sathiya Nagar, said, “Last year, we protested for more than 150 days against the privatisation of NULM (National Urban Livelihood Mission). The govt ignored our plea, now everybody shows up at our houses seeking a vote. For five years, nobody came, even during floods. Why should we vote for anyone if our lives are not going to change?” Fishermen also said their demands were not met.
