CHENNAI, Feb 4: Palaniappan Chidambaram of the Tamil Manila Congress who had made his mark as the reformist of the Manmohan era during his days with Congress and as Finance Minister as the TMC minister in the United Front government is contesting the Sivakasi Lok Sabha seat for the fifth time having held it since the begining of his parliamentary career in 1984.This time, former minister and Deputy General Secretary of the AIADMK, K Kalimuthu, a powerful orator in Tamil, is Chidambaram's main rival. The Congress party has once again fielded M Gowrisankaran, a granite exporter. There are a few independents also in the fray.
In the 1996 elections, Chidambaram, who had emerged as the virtual second-in-command in the TMC defeated Congress candidate Gowrisankaran by a huge margin of 2.47 lakh. Chidambaram polled nearly 4.18 lakh votes.
Thirty per cent of the electorate in the constituency are backward `Mukkulathor' community, consisting of Thevars, Kallars and Agamudiars. ScheduledCastes constitute over 12 per cent, Yadavs ten per cent, Chettiars six per cent, Muslims eight per cent and Christians five per cent. Chidambaram belongs to Chettiar (traders) community.
Chidambaram, who came into full political limelight in 1984 when he was picked up by late Rajiv Gandhi was a passionate Communist in his student days. ``As days progress, one matures. Sharp edges get smoothened,'' he said on his transformation into a protagonist of the market, which ultimately took him to North Block on June 1, 1996, a month after he shed his identity as a Congressman.
``If mass appeal is to whip up people to a frenzy, then I won't have it,'' he once said in reference to criticism that he won on the strengh of the party ticket rather than personal charisma.
Born in kandanur near Karaikudi on Sept 16, 1945, Chidambaram graduated from Presidency College, Chennai. After taking his law degree from the Madras Law College, he went to the Harvard Business School to do his MBA.
Chidambaram's reputation hasnow been made as finance minister and as the architect of the highly successful Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme, but, of all the portfolios he has held, he is considered most successful in the Commerce Department, where he helped Indian exports grow the fastest (at 25 per cent per anum) in Independent India.
Ironically, it was as commerce minister, he resigned twice earning the reputation of a `quitter' for a short while. First was in September 1992, after he was alleged to have illegaly benefitted by buying shares of now defunct Fairgrowth Financial Co. Ltd. The issue faded away but has not died down, and comes in handy to his detractors once in a while.
However, the second resignation made him a hero of sorts in the political milieu of Tamil Nadu. Protesting against the Congress high command's decision to strike an alliance with the `corruption-driven' AIADMK for the 1996 elections, he resigned from the party along with thousands of his party colleagues in April 1996.
When the United Front wascobbled together, Chidambaram as the finance minister authored the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), a document of political consensus among UF partners on economic policy and eventually went beyond the CMP to usher in quicker reforms in crucial sectors.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
