Nagercoil, a Christian dominated constituency, is one area in Tamil Nadu where democratic process does not work, especially among the Christian commuunity. Since the advent of BJP in this region, the Church has been interfering in the democratic process by giving its diktat on who the Christians should vote for. With about 45 per cent Christian population, the diktat has time and again spelled the death knell for the BJP.

The major beneficiary of this is the sitting MP, N Dennis. But for this practice by the Church, Dennis would have disappeared from the political scene long ago. Representing this constituency since 1980, he has contributed very little to the developmentof the area. It continues to be backward with fishing, farming and rubber plantations being the main source of employment. There is practically no industry here.

Dennis is one of the very few MPs who have been officially reprimanded for sleeping in Parliament. A cross-section of the people when contacted by this correspondent said that they were aware of Dennis' track record but say they are helpless in view of the Church's order. Dennis' BJP opponent, Pon Radhakrishnan, is fighting against him for the fourth time.

In the last two elections he has been losing to Dennis by a margin of less than 30,000 votes. He has more popular support compared to Dennis (and now a sympathy factor has also seemed to have set in) and is continuously improving his support base among Christians in order to bag the seat.

He is promising to build a harbour at Colachal for the fishermen community (which has since begun to support him), bring small industries into the region and fight for the welfare of the rubber growers whohave been affected by poor realisations. He is also promising an engineering and medical college for the area which boasts of high literacy.

TMC has fielded, Kumaradas, its sitting Kiliyanur MLA. He is expected to get a section of Christian votes too apart from the local support. Dennis is seeking re-elction as a Congree candidate with the support of AIADMK.

Nagercoil is a Congree bastion and one of the very few places in Tamil Nadu where Dravidian parties have marginal presence. In the areas bordering Kerala, communists have a strong presence. This is likely to help Dennis. There are also reports that communists are feeling very odd to support Congree in Tamil Nadu while opposing it in Kerala just across the border. It is possible that they may either not vote or end up supporting the TMC candidate.

It is not clear whether the Church will interfere this time also. If it does and still the BJP candidate manages to win, then Nagercoil would turn out to be a role model for BJP, if it wishes to win overthe support of minorities.