Tracking Chennai’s faces in Parliament

The city of Chennai is split into three constituencies – Chennai North, Chennai Central and Chennai South.

Chennai North consists of the assembly segments of Thiruvetriyoor, Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar, Perambur (SC), Kolathur, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Royapuram. Chennai Central is made of the six assemblies of Park Town, Purasawalkam, Egmore, Anna Nagar, Thousand Lights and Chepauk. Chennai South is made up of the assembly segments Virugambakkam, Saidapet, T Nagar, Mylapore, Velachery and Sholinganallur.

From left to right: Dayanidhi Maran, C Rajendran, T K S Elangovan

T K S Elangovan | Constituency: Chennai North

Elangovan was elected as a Member of Parliament for Chennai North for the 15th Lok Sabha in 2009. Chennai North has long been a DMK ‘safe seat’ and Elangovan defeated D Pandian of CPM by just under 20,000 votes to capture it. Elangovan is also the Organisational Secretary of the DMK.

Since becoming a member of the Lok Sabha, Elangovan has taken his place in various committees. He has been a member of the Committees on Estimates, External Affairs, Empowerment of Women, Chemicals and Fertilizers and on the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Railways.

In the Lok Sabha, Mr.Elangovan boasts a high attendance rate (91 per cent), well over the national (76 per cent) and state (69 per cent) averages. He has participated in 56 debates and posed 15 questions. The topics of these questions are wide-ranging - covering issues such as bringing Naxalites into the mainstream, upgrades of telecom network, cost of road construction, use of synthetic bags, health insurance for freedom fighters and even a study on e-waste.

Not much is to be found on the MP from Chennai North, either in the gossip columns or in the scandal sheets.

Dayanidhi Maran | Constituency: Chennai Central

Member of Parliament for the constituency of Chennai Central, Dayanidhi Maran of DMK is a charismatic and familiar face in the Indian political sphere. The Additional Deputy Leader of his political party, Maran has previously been the Minister for Communications and Information Technology in the Union Cabinet during the period 2004-2007 and the Minister of Textiles in the Cabinet from 2009 - 2011.

Dayanidhi Maran won the 2009 elections with a vote count of 2,85,783, defeating the AIADMK’s SMK Mogamed Ali Jinnah. Maran had previously won the 2004 elections as well. Like his father before him, Dayanidhi Maran also contested from the Chennai Central constituency.The constituency is a long time DMK bastion and Maran won the seat for DMK in 2004 and 2009 and was elected to the Union Cabinet both times.

Of the three MPs, Maran's performance in Parliament is perhaps the least impressive. During his second term as an MP, Dayanidhi Maran’s Lok Sabha attendance at 62 per cent was slightly less than the State average (69 per cent) but considerably less than the National average (76 per cent). He participated in only one debate - on the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka in March 2013, but posed no questions and placed no Bills.

Maran is no stranger to controversies and both of his terms as Union Minister came to abrupt conclusions due to a scandal of some sort. During his tenure as the Telecom Minister, he envisioned a better-connected India, championing the cause of faster broadband connection and aiming for 20 million wireless broadband connections by 2010. A family feud put paid to his time in the Cabinet and he was removed from the DMK party.

After a reconciliation, he once again joined the party and contested from Chennai Central and was given the post of Textiles Minister in the 2007 Union Cabinet. This came to yet another abrupt end in 2011, when he came under CBI scrutiny for his role in the 2G Spectrum scam.

C Rajendran | Constituency: Chennai South

The Member of Parliament for Chennai South constituency is C Rajendran of the ruling AIADMK party. An advocate by profession, Rajendran is from the Chitlapakkam area of the city. In 2009, C Rajendran was elected as a Member of Parliament from Chennai South to the 15th Lok Sabha, defeating DMK's R S Bharathy by more than 30,000 votes. He took over from DMK's T R Baalu.

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A long time functionary of the party, 54-year-old Rajendran has been the vice-president of the Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat from 1986 till 1991. Between 1996 and 2001, he was the councillor of the Chitlapakkam Town Panchayat and the AIADMK District Secretary for Kancheepuram East. From 2001 to 2006, he was the Chairman of the St. Thomas Mount Panchayat Union.

Out of the three Chennai MPs, Rajendran has been the most active participant in the Lok Sabha debates. According to the records available, he has participated in 48 debates in the past 5 years, mostly on the topic of Budget (railways). A closer look at the topics of the debates he participated in shows his interest in highlighting issues pertaining to Chennai in the Lok Sabha.

Rajendran has asked over 400 questions in the current session of the Lok Sabha. His interests are varied, as evidenced by his questions that encompassed, among many others,  issues such as air pollution in big cities, the killing of wild animals, admissions in KV schools, shortage of medical personnel, relief and rehabilitation of rape victims.

Boasting a relatively blemish-free journey so far, C Rajendran's political career graph showed a small blip recently when his name cropped up, along with that of eleven other MPs, in relation to a bribing scandal. The AIADMK MP was alleged to have taken money to issue letters of recommendation to Mediterranean Oil Inc., a bogus Australian oil exploration company. Rajendran has denied the allegations.

Assets & Participation: A Quick Comparison

Source: www.prsindia.org

Note: Dayanidhi Maran was a Minister. He tendered his resignation on 12 July, 2011. Participation and attendance details here are only from 13 July, 2011.

* Assets/Liabilities figures are as disclosed in the affidavit filed for the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections

** National Average: 76 per cent;   State Average: 69 per cent

MPLADS funds utilization

Launched in December 1993, the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme provides every MP with yearly funds, for them to use the monies for the development of their constituency as they see fit. When the programme was launched, each MP was allocated Rs 2 crores per year and this amount was raised to Rs 5 crores per year from 2011.

Up to Rs 10 lakh can also be used for the development of any other constituency in the country.

Various civic works were the lucky recipients of the money in the last Lok Sabha term.

Dayanidhi Maran’s records in the central MPLADS website shows a single work in progress - construction of bus stand structures at Villivakkam, Chennai at a sanctioned cost of Rs 60,00,000. The work was sanctioned in October 2010 and its status is shown as ongoing.

A detailed account of spending by the two other Chennai MPs can be seen here:

T K S Elangovan | C Rajendran    [Source: http://mplads.nic.in/]