Lok Paritran To Contest 6 Seats In Chennai
For years the armchair political analysts in Chennai have complained about the lack of choice in elections. The common statement was ‘raman vandha enna? ravanan vandha enna? Nattuku nallathu nadaka porathu illai’, which can be summed up as who ever comes to power nothing will be done for the people. When most Indians had lost faith in the political system, especially the youth, Lok Paritran, a party launched by IITians entered the scene. This party was suddenly spoken about by the educated; students who were disinterested in politics suddenly joined the party. They managed to create a stir amongst the educated and student community.
This party has thrown their hat into the Tamil Nadu assembly elections. They contesting 12 seats in all, and 6 seats in Chennai city, including Mylapore, where the party’s chief advisor Santhanagopalan Vasudev contesting and the other
seats they are contesting are T Nagar, Thousand Lights, Park Town, Saidapet, and Anna Nagar, for which the candidates are yet to be finalized.
In Chennai, they are contesting the constancies which have a high percentage of educated electorate, where they might be able to garner some votes, but I don’t think they will be able to win any seats, given the traditional mindset of the TN voter to vote for the Chief Minister rather than local issues dominating the electorates mind. It will be interesting to see if the armchair political analysts of Chennai actually support the new party.
This is a brave move by these guys and I think they deserve full support. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of change they will bring to the political scenario in Tamil Nadu
I have some questions
1. What is the basis in which they have chosen the candidates?
2. Is education directly proportional to quality of governance, indirectly proportional to corruption?
3. In what way they are different from any other political party that exists today?
I saw the interview of these guys in CNN-IBN somedays back. They said, they are no different from any other political party! What makes them so special? Why should someone vote for them? What is their agenda?
I think my house comes under Thousand Lights and I am looking forward to see who is going to contest there from Lok Paritan.
Still, I say they haven’t done the their PR campaign rightly. Though, through this post we know they are contesting some seats, but still we don’t have idea who are the candidates and why they are better than others. Lok Paritan has been lucky till now to have media flash light on them but if this is being not utilised properly, they will end up as another failed experiment for change. Everyone want change but people need strong reason to do that, thats the nature of ‘inertia’.
@varun
thats true, they havent done their PR properly, it also matters whether they are willing get down and dirty with their campagin (i mean go to the slums and campagin)
@shanker
they are still searching for candidates
@Ferrari
they are like every other party, but they just seem well intentioned,
@Resolution
true its a brave move, and i doubt if they can do more than just get some votes, i dont think they ca win even a single seat this time
If we can give Arcot veerasamy, Pannerselvam, or ppl like that a chance to be in the ministry ! … there is no problem in giving these ppl a chance ! … after all they are not going to form the government ..atleaset they will speak some sense in the assembly
I guess thats the basic which we require now !
i’m an engineering student residing in perambur and i wish to vote for lok paritran. is it possible to vote in the perambur constituency?
Hi,
Its nice to see sucha party evolving.A party with an idelogy.I had a look at their website and it is quite inspiring.. These guys have left lucrative jobs abroad for a cause..To change our hopeless corrupt political system.. We dont have a choice in tamilnadu other than those narrowminded dravidian parties.. What we need is a party that can take a rational approach to the problems faced by the society and a will to work towards improving the economy of the state..rather than just mere gimmicks..
And i feel the lok paritran has a good start in that it has highly qualified people in it and that shud send us hope that things will be for the better.If not now in the future..
Cheers,
Shyam
Hi,
I strongly feel that Lok Paritran should contest in many more constituencies; atleast in most urban areas across the State. These feelings of lack of choice and political inertia is prevalent not just in Chennai, but among the entire youth. All of those who are convinced with Lok Paritran’s ideology and those who believe that they can make a difference, want to vote for them and are even going one step further to convince others to vote for them. It is really disappointing that they have selected such a small set of constituencies. I feel they did not realise how much support they have gained in a short period.
Nonetheless, if this is their final list, I wish them all the very best for getting into the Assembly. I would like to mention that, we feel you Chennaities belonging to those constituencies Lok Paritran has selected are really lucky! I call upon the youth of these areas to not only vote for them but also to convince your friends and relatives to do so. Don’t miss a golden oppurtunity to make a difference.
Have a Great future,
Mohan
im sure in the days to come lok paritan will grow by leaps and bounces. since the party has been truly formed only with an intention to serve the people and meet their requirements.
OK. IITians who have comeback leaving their Green Cards safely locked up. Hmm.. that IS a big sacrifice for most of us. Indeed. Since these guys have sacrificed so much, we shouldn’t let them lose. Right? Makes lot of sense. Unfortunately people here have bigger problems than corruption. They don’t have money. Only if they have money and basic needs, they can think of development, national integrity and stuff. They are going to vote for AMMA anyway. So let’s just ignore these people and try cashing in the educated upper class who are frustrated with things like reservations, quotas and wealth taxes. But it’s still difficult to win in these constituencies cos the percentage of rich and the number of engineers is still too small. So let’s just keep forwarding mails to all engineers and ask everyone to watch Yuva before voting. Someday we’ll get a seat.
my views here: http://prashblog.be/2006/04/21/lok-paritrana-a-choice-for-the-youth/
All the best,guys. We are with you. You may not win this time, but we’ll vote for you at least in an attempt to reduce the major parties’ vote share and popularity base.
May this be the dawn of the Golden Era.
Yes, I do believe that in this country where people are so sensitive about the 2 Cs – Cinema and Cricket – it will help a little bit if the electorate watches Yuva and RDB on the da before polling.
Santhana Gopalan…Yup, For starters your campaign without any resources was great, with just the local volunteers. Hoping that many more will join in and Boooooooost up your morale. you can count me in for the next seven days.
Its most required and wanted one, which the youths were awaiting for a very long while. A better and specific approach concentrated towards the student and educated community is most welcoming. It would be better if we are able to communicate with the founders, so that many new ideas can be introduced through mutual interaction. Break the rules to make a new rule, expedite your process to make it come true. Never give up your hopes, All the very best..hoping to see Kalam’s dream come true.
Most awaited moments are at the reach now. Break the rules to make new rules. We are all happy to see, educated heads for forming this team, which is going to be a great hit fulfilling KALAM’s dream. Expedite your process, but never get yourself deviated. Ethics and attitude should not be brought down on any circumstances. To be a leader of good team, Potential is essential. Keep good thing going.
To contest in a particular state, the people in the party should have knowledge of the states language and culture. But Lok Paritran’s National Leaders dont know neither Tamil nor Malayalam. How are they planning to campaign?
Well the candidates are finalized by the way…
Santhanagopal—Mylapore
Elanthirumaran—Chepauk
IshrayelMahesh–Thousand Lights
Mrs. prema– Villivakkam
Arvind Thiruvaiyar–T.Nagar
Rajamani—AnnaNagar
Vanchinarayanan–mudhukulathur
SS
I am happy that at least they are trying. I checked their website to see if they are promising individuals or if their organisation has a coherent vision. Not very impressed.
Except for the fact that they are good-intentioned, there is nothing positive about them. Their views appear too simplistic, their approach a bit naive and their PR quite disappointing.
But again, in India, few successful things have been done by doing them right. I would be happy to see them win a seat or two if only to release the latent political energies of our people.
It is very encouraging to see educated, excellence come in politics, running any organization be it business, social or political is a greta skill and requires temendous amoun to feducation. If a company won’t hire an illiterate to run it’s departments then why should the people hire(select/vote) one to run the political system. I fI can I will rent a house in the area these boys are contesting from and vote for them I recoomend all of you who can should also do so.
I will put up 2 postings here… this is the first..
WHY I WANT LOK PARITRAN
1) They are a part of the cre`me of the Indian intellectual society. Hopefully. They will deliver with their intuitive thinking.
2) The Student Community has been dis-empowered and subdued for over a decade now. There has barely been a student initiated protestation with regard to politics. A change is needed because i believe that if this country has to become any better, a revolution is mandatory and there is no one better than a student with his morals set high and vigour & enthusiasm at its maximum.
3) Today’s student is tomorrow’s leader. The problem is, in this time gap between today and tomorrow, the youg man is exposed to the world of corruption and easy money. These students haven’t gone through that time gap. They are a soure of definite hope!
I do hope and pray that they succeed. What is more, i do hope that they DELIVER!
At the outset, i must say that i will vote for Lok Paritran, only because i am an optimistic person. But, there are many things that bother me.
THINGS THAT BOTHER ME ABOUT LOK PARITRAN!!!
1) These IITians are young and inexperienced. They have proved this by the way they have handled their campaigning procedure… What kind of a political party says… “I will not be bogged down even if we lose this time.”… Have they not already conceeded defeat by making this statement… Remember that this is straight out of a press release!
2) I do not wish to see another non-secular hindu-founded political party enforcing more saffronisation than there already is. Their original party Ideology and Goal that were put up on the internet site, http://www.lokparitran.org , suggested exactly that. They were quick to make necessary corrections, but it has provoked some doubts in me. Also, mind you, every contestant and their national leaders belong to the Hindu Community. (Do feel free to correct me if i am wrong!) What guarantees us that there will not be any Religional Bias when they assume power? (If they ever do!)
3) Hailing from the IIT’s, they are bound to have a sound technical knowledge. But do they posses similar depth in political sciences? No one except Mr. Santhanagopalan, who has a P.G. in Economics, seem to have a background that deviates from a study of Technology!
4)Simple question yet, one of significance:
WHAT CAN A YOUNG INEXPERIENCED GROUP DO, WHEN ALL THE GREY HAIRS HAVE FAILED?