Keeripatti

8226; Moona Balusamy 38, the rebel CPIM-backed candidate, who defied the Thevars, is quite sure that the gun-toting constable from Madurai police with him can do little to save his life. “There are threats from the Thevars that they would attack me during night time when I am walking down the streets,” he says. Baluchamy was elected unopposed. The Thevars say the nominations of their candidates were deliberately rejected as the administration was sure that they would force a Dalit president to resign immediately after his election. Baluchamy says the district administration is working out a satisfactory development package to pacify the Thevars who have, in the past, used oracles to warn Dalits that they can never dream of being panchayat presidents.

Kottatchiyendal

“Only yesterday just three days before the Chennai celebrations, district officials informed us that Rs 3 crore would be spent on the three villages falling within the Panchayat,” said M Muniyandi, the newly nominated vice-president of the Kottatchiyendal Panchayat. The reason for the bounty: the president, Sonaimagan Karuppan, was backed by Muniyandi despite protests from other villagers. Karuppan, representing the Chokkliar caste the lowest sect among Dalits, has been working in Muniyandi’s fields for years. Muniyandi got away with his rebellion because he was the DMK’s village branch secretary. Pleased with the bargain struck with the state, the panchayat will send 45 people to the Chennai function, including Karuppan and his wife.

Pappapatti

At 11.30 am, P Periakaruppan 40, a poor farm hand, yet to get over his election as panchayat president, is taking a quick nap. A few yards away, in a car shed, so is his gun-toting personal security guard. There’s no risk to Periyakaruppan’s life as he was the unanimous choice of the Piramalai Kallars, a Thevar sect. The reason he can sleep peacefully is this — the Thevars have got what they wanted from the DMK government. From November 1, a bus started plying on the pitted roads to the village. The Village Administrative Officer, O Manikcam, has been shunted out merely five months after he took charge as he had backed T Baluchamy, a Dalit and a BCom graduate, against Periakaruppan who he openly declared would be a “rubber stamp president”. Manickam received marching orders on Saturday after the Thevars threatened to boycott the DMK’s celebrations.

Naatamangalam

P Ganesan 45 walks proudly down the slushy roads of the Dalit “colony” to take charge, followed by his security guard. The guard shares his cramped hut. Ganesan works as a farmhand on the fields owned by the Thevars. As he lays down his demands for the village, he is rudely interrupted by a High Court lawyer, a Thevar native of Nattamangalam, threatening him not to speak without the permission of the village heads. The Thevars reluctantly agreed to the collector’s request “not to compel the president to resign” on the condition that the vice-president’s post be given to a Thevar. That, besides a Rs 40-lakh cement road laying programme, a drama hall, a community hall, a marriage hall and a compound wall for the village water tank, loans for SHG members and farm loans.