Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu): At the first glance Pavan Kumar will pass off as a typical Tamil Nadu politician but on taking a closer look one sees the difference. So, what does a Jain have to do in Dravidian politics?
Kumar is All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK's) candidate for the Tiruvannamalai Assembly seat.
Fighting an election from the heart of Tamil Nadu, Kumar says, “People do not vote for the community or caste, they vote for the service that I have done.”
Kumar runs a lorry business and owns a petrol bunk. He speaks in flawless Tamil but at home he sticks to his mother tongue, Marwari. His father was also a politician and a congress MLA.
Kumar has been in the AIADMK since the 1970's and he sites history when asked if it's possible for him to win the polls this year.
“My father won the elections in 1967 during the peak of the anti-Hindi movement. So it's not difficult,” Kumar said.
His Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) rival's are raking up the community issue but Kumar says he's confident of winning the elections.
Kumar is perhaps an example of how a community has adapted itself and merged with the rest of the society in the far corners of the country.
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