Health Minister and the AIADMK nominee for the Viralimalai assembly constituency C. Vijayabaskar who has hit the ground soliciting votes from the electorate on a feverish pace seems to have found a robust campaigner in none other than his teenaged daughter V. Rithanya Priyadarshini who he takes along in his campaign van.

Seated in the campaign vehicle that covered the interior pockets of the Viralimalai constituency, Rithanya Priyadarshini refers to her father as ‘Ungal Veetu Pillai’ (son of your house), reasoning out that he had spent most of his time with people of the constituency than with family members. On the day of Diwali festival in 2019, she said her father was personally supervising the operation to rescue a minor boy who fell into a borewell at Nadukattupatti near Manapparai. “I myself told my father that he should not return back home without rescuing the boy”, Ms. Priyadarshini said.

Appealing to the electorate to cast their lot in favour of Mr. Vijayabaskar, Ms. Rithanya Priyadarshini said he was the one who had brought Cauvery water to the constituency.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic when many of us did not venture out fearing the spread of infection, my father was on the ground inspecting the COVID-19 wards in hospitals without caring about his personal health,” Ms. Rithanya said.

Just over a month ago, the teen had her arangetram performance, held in Chennai, in the presence of both Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.