Poetic poser for AIADMK

Newindpress - Assembly Polls 2006: "Her novel Irandaam Jaamangalin Kathai (The Story of the Second Quarter of Night) with its explicit sexual overtones had shocked the Tamil literary world. By her own admission, poet Salma (37) distressed the Muslim community with her bold writing. Her detractors say the Thiruvarankurichi Jamat had recently issued a fatwa to the 20,000-odd Muslims in the Marungapuri constituency to vote against her.

In a most bitterly fought election, it was expected that Karunanidhi would pick a ‘non-controversial’ candidate or rather one who could face up to the AIADMK’s might in its fortress of Marungapuri, a backward constituency, about 65 km from Tiruchy. But the DMK chief chose the progressive writer from among 58 applicants, overlooking even former minister M Senguttuvan, who won the seat in 1996, the only time the DMK caused a crack in the AIADMK fortress.

Salma’s choice also triggered speculation that Karunanidhi’s daughter, Kanimozhi, a poet herself and a long-time friend, had influenced the decision. Salma would be the first woman contestant in the constituency, known for its caste divisions and dirty intra-party politics.

There is a lot of expectation, at least in Thiruvarankurichi. DMK partymen canvass for her, promising that Salma would win and return as a minister. For a development starved constituency this is sweet music.

Draped in a simple blue synthetic saree with a sequined black shawl covering her head, Salma steps into a Tata Sumo, at 5 am. It zips off, rapidly covering ground on the newly-laid tar road flanked by hills.

The personalised canvassing has won her appreciation across the 1000-odd villages of Marungapuri constituency, she says. The other candidates hardly bothered to leave the main roads. Salma claims she has almost covered the length and breadth of Marungapuri, one of the most backward constituencies in Tamil Nadu.

Better known in Thiruvarankurichi, her native village, as A Rokkiaha Malik, Salma has been fielded against heavyweight Chinnasamy Gounder, representing the dominant Gounder community and moneybag B T Kumar, an Amma backer who crossed over to the BJP a month back. But the soft-spoken Muslim poetess is no cringer. Forced to stop her studies after ninth standard, Salma acquired interest in literature and politics by reading on her own. Defying a conservative Islamic upbringing she took to a literary career."