SP Udaykumar, a 58-year-old America-returned academician turned anti-nuke activist, has launched another struggle – this time to beat the two Dravidian majors in the assembly elections from Radhapuram constituency under which falls the Kudankulam nuclear plant facility in Tirunelveli district of South Tamil Nadu.

Already extremely popular with the masses, comprising mostly fisherfolk in this coastal village cluster, amidst which the Kudankulam nuclear plant exists, Udaykumar had run rings around the scientific community and halted the work at the plant site for nearly two years.

His main election plant continues to remain – the Kudankulam Nucelar power plant, which he said is a monument to corruption as also an unsafe monstrosity that poses danger to the people living nearby. Fisherfolk rallied around him as well as the church too backed him in his protracted campaign against the plant, till AIADMK government led by Jayalalithaa unleashed strong police action.

Udaykumar faces some 400 criminal cases, filed against him during the course of the agitation. But these have not deterred the fighter in him and he entered the electoral fray this time as an independent candidate from Radhapuram constituency, which comprises some 200 villages.

Udaykumar enjoys the status of a local hero and is popular among the villagers and a known figure. But can it help him win the elections, “difficult to say, but looks a tad difficult” said a local resident over phone from Kudankulam. But, there is a strong feeling among the villagers that “one of us” that he is, Udaykumar must enter Assembly to speak for us.

“I am a very serious contender. Just wait for the results,” Udaykumar said over phone from a village near Kudankulam. Ranged against him is M Aeppu a three time MLA of DMK from the same constituency and IS Inba Durai, AIADMK, two locally powerful leaders from the Nadar community.

The region is dominated by this community. He sure knows that the battle is very tough and challenging, given the fact that he depends on volunteers for campaign whereas the opponents, Dravidian majors have money and muscle power at their command.

“I am far behind in these things. Also I do not have an organized institutional mechanism to run the campaign. We do small meetings, door to door canvassing and contacting people over phone,” he said as opposed to the thousands carted by political parties for big rallies and public meetings.

People have got upset and angry over vulgar display of money and this time around you would see, they would vote differently, he said. And then he warms up to Kudankulam when meeting people, reminding them what it is and the corruption that he alleges is part and parcel of the whole thing.

Despite all the money pumped in, the Kudankulam unit one is still plagued with problems. The second unit is already delayed by three years, he said and went onto allege – there is a huge cost escalation for unit three and four. Today each unit, the third and fourth are quoted at Rs 45,000 crore per unit whereas for unit one and two, the price was Rs 16000 crore.

This, he said, was cited by the nuclear authorities in an RTI reply. Corruption is also a very big issue in elections, he said, and will play out in the elections. Both DMK and AIADMK are the same when it
came to corruption, he alleged.

Then there are purely local issues that he is picking up – bad infrastructure, poor roads and connectivity and more important rising unemployment. Added to this are poor quality of education, pathetic infrastructure, rapidly declining agriculture and accompanying problems, he said.

He promises to work for improving things, to the best of his ability. “People are fed up of both AIADMK and DMK and are looking for an alternative. Here in Radhapuram I am the alternative and the people already have endorsed me,” a confident sounding Udaykumar said. May 19 will tell whether his confidence is in the right place.