While the rest of the state (and the country) calls Jayalalithaa a Chief Minister whom they could never meet, the voters of her constituency don’t seem to mind. Thousands of people gathered at five different locations at R.K. Nagar to meet their leader. Also, they are keen on re-electing her.

The AIADMK supremo addressed a rally in RK Nagar on Friday. “You are the air that I breathe,” she said, and added that the AIADMK government had spent Rs.200 crores for various projects in the constituency, including drinking water facilities.

RK Nagar is among the smallest constituencies in Tamil Nadu, consisting mainly of middle-class voters. There are 1.24 lakh men, 1.23 lakh women, and 103 voters belonging to the third gender. During the 2011 Assembly elections, P. Vetrivel of the AIADMK won the elections with a margin of more than 30,000 votes. After Jayalalithaa’s acquittal in the DA case, Vetrivel resigned. Jayalalithaa won with a huge margin in the by-elections that were held.

The residents of RK Nagar sound very impressed by the changes that followed her winning the election from the constituency. The constituency now has new roads, street lights, and the popular Amma canteen. While some remarked that they were very satisfied with the relief measures of the government following the heavy rains of 2015, there are others who complain about polluted drinking water and of contamination by crude oil leaking into the ground from an oil pipeline of the Ennore Port.

Most voters of the constituency are optimistic however that Jayalalithaa would address these civic issues one she returns to power.

Jayalalithaa’s opponents in the constituency are Shimla Muthuchozhan of the DMK, and Vasanthi Devi (former vice-chancellor of the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University) of the VCK. Many of the voters are not even aware of the names of these candidates.