It is harvest time in the sugarcane belt of northern Tamil Nadu. As the harsh sun beats down on the fields in Kombadikuppam, 10 km from Virudhachalam, 30-odd Dalits chop the sugarcane stalks, at times springing back in fear when a hissing viper startles them. It is part of their humdrum life. Now there’s a new lilt in their voices: they believe MGR is back.

They are certain their MGR—actor Vijayakant—will ensure there’s enough rice for them and jobs that would help them bring home a decent pay. May 11, the day the assembly election results of the Virudhachalam constituency were announced, was observed as the ‘day of deliverance’. Vijayakant won from there, beating his PMK rival by about 13,500 votes.

Seventy-five of the 120 Dalit voters in the village, who had over the years always stood behind the AIADMK, voted for Vijayakant, a familiar face in the rural constituency where villagers trek 10 km to the town’s theatres to see his films, which usually depict the hero pursuing a corrupt politician and ushering a golden era for the poor.

‘‘Our MGR is back with us. Our ‘colony’ (as the Dalit quarters is called) will have good roads, the rains will not flood our huts anymore and we will have a school for our children,’’ said S Veeramani, the new secretary of the Vijayakant Fan Club and until a month ago, the colony’s DMK functionary.

Kombadikuppam village, dominated by the Vanniyars, had been fiercely loyal to the PMK from 1991 when the party entered the election fray, unfailingly voting for ‘Doctor Aiyaa’—as Dr S Ramadoss, the PMK founder, is called. They were grateful that Doctor Aiyaa had got them the Most Backward Caste status.

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