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Election fever yet to strike Tamil Nadu

The walls are mostly bare, and the evenings calm as ever. With just ten days to go for the Lok Sabha election, poll fever is yet to catch up in most parts of Tamil Nadu. Be it the AIADMK alliance, which went to town with its list of nominees four weeks ahead of the poll, slated for February 16 and 22, or the ruling DMK-TMC combine, which is grappling even with its very shape and colour till the last moment, no one has really started any serious work on the campaign front.

"It was never like this before," says S Ramachandran, an AIADMK worker in the prestigious Sivaganga constituency, where Union Finance Minister and TMC leader P Chidambaram is seeking re-election for the fifth time. Competing with him is K Kalimuthu of the AIADMK, one of the few Dravidian leaders who has a fan following of his own, for the flowery Tamil that he spouts from political platforms.

"Even in 1996, when we were facing certain defeat, both sides went to town with great vigour," recalls Ramachandran. Though the campaign momentum is slowly picking up in constituencies like Sivaganga and Salem, where state Congress president K V Thankgabalu is facing a stiff fight from outgoing TMC member R Devadoss and Thamizhaga Rajiv Congress leader Vazhappadi K Ramamurthy, the campaign is yet to hot up elsewhere.

"The chances are, it may never reach a climax," says R Swaminathan, a DMK sympathiser at Tindivanam, where Union Transport Minister T G Venkataraman is taking on MDMK leader 'Jinji' Ramachandran and Congress stalwart and one-time Moopanar aide, 'Tindivanam' K Ramamurthy. "People seem indifferent to the frequency of elections, and the increasing possibility of another 'hung Parliament' has sapped whatever enthusiasm that was left."

"But that's only one of the reasons," says V Velappan, a former Congress district secretary now in the TMC, at Nagercoil, near Land's End. Here, the party has fielded five-time MP N Dennis against Pon Radhakrishnan, the 'persistent loser' from the BJP who shows signs of recovery this time. "Internal problems within both alliances have come to be reflected in the campaign as well."

He may have a point. As he adds, "Voter indifference is one thing, but cadre inactivity is another." Even at the worst of times, party cadres, like those from the AIADMK last time, put up a brave fight. "But this time, there is a lot of inconsistency and incongruity, at every level, and in almost every constituency."

A Chidambaram of Sivakasi, from the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam -- the party is in the AIADMK alliance alongwith the BJP and the Pattali Makkal Katchi -- shares this opinion. "Our organisation is superb here, and we started our work for our leader V Gopalswamy, even when the last election was on. Once the alliance was finalised, and it was known that Vaiko (as Gopalswamy is called) will contest from here, we have sworn to get him elected."

But the confusion in the rival camp, whether the DMK would give it to the CPI again, or field its own candidate -- the former has since come true -- dampened enthusiasm. Even the MDMK camp is lax, feeling a little over-confident. "We are winning, and you can hear our leader in Parliament, all over again," reports Chidambaram.

But the MDMK confidence is restricted only to Sivakasi. Elsewhere, senior leaders quitting the party has affected cadre morale. There is also an undercurrent of resentment in the party ranks over Gopalaswamy aligning with AIADMK under Jayalalitha after running down her erstwhile government severely at the last polls.

"It's difficult to digest, and it's difficult to face friends from other parties, particularly the DMK, who had been taunting us even then that Gopalswamy was only playing for time," says Ravi, an MDMK worker in Tirunelveli.

Here, despite the DMK fielding film star Sarath Kumar, and the AIADMK holding its three-day conference earlier this year, the campaign is as damp as elsewhere. "The caste equations have not comforted the AIADMK, and there is tension always in the air," says Ramani, a Congress leader.

The caste wars of the last few years are threatening to burst open at election time, and even Union Minister M Arunachalam, the TMC nominee from neighbouring Tenkasi constituency, was roughed up by volunteers of the caste-based Devendra Kula Vellalar Federation, when he came to the district collectorate to file his nomination.

As for Sarath Kumar's presence, his nomination is yet to sink in, and his Nadar community is yet to digest his accepting the DMK ticket, a few days after leading their massive procession in Madras over the Tamilnadu Mercantile Bank issue, aimed at the party leadership.

If Sarath Kumar is busy placating community leaders while his cadres sit back and relax, saying his victory is assured, another film-star, Ramarajan is sweating it out in yet another neighbouring constituency, Tiruchendur, from where Union Minister Dhanushkodi Adhithan is seeking re-election on the TMC ticket.

"We have to cover a lot of area in three districts, and despite his filmi image and community-base (Ramarajan, like Adhithan is a Nadar, but from outside the locality), we have to 'introduce' the candidate to the voters."

Which means, Ramarajan is busy touring the interiors with his actress-wife Nalini, who has since quit cinema, and their children, leaving little time for public meetings, and organising campaign elsewhere.

For all this, however, it is the BJP which is at a comparative advantageous position. Leave alone the general upswing in its public image, the party, in key constituencies like Nagercoil, had alerted its prospective candidates to go ahead with their campaign even when the short-lived Vajpayee government was in office at the Centre. "Whether or not the government survived, we knew elections could not be avoided for long, and that has given us an advantage," says party nominee Radhakrishnan at Nagercoil.

In comparison, it's the TMC which has been found wanting. With the party leadership taking its own time deciding on the alliance-equations and seat-sharing, and waiting till the very last minute to announce its nominees in some cases, avoidable rumours have led to confusion at the cadre-level.

After the BJP, it's the PMK which is running a more organised campaign. Says party vice-president Ravindran Doraiswamy: "We were sure from which constituencies we would contest, either on our own, or as an ally of the DMK or the AIADMK."

While the AIADMK alliance has helped the party electorally, the caste-base of the Vanniar community organisation has ensured that the message was carried into the interiors. "Ours is a poor party in comparison, and we were also devoting most of our time and energy only to door-to-door campaign and cadre-meetings, not to fanciful public meetings, and costly wall-writings and hoarding."

With the leaders of all political parties and groupings busy giving final touches to their own tour programmes and alliance-coordination, there is a vacuum that has been left unfilled in all the parties. "It has also exposed the vacuum at the leadership-level," says a PMK leader.

"After the man at the top, there are no credible and popular second-line leaders who can share the campaign work, and who can attract crowds. All the parties revolve around their respective supremos. While this has helped them consolidate their hold over the cadres, and ensure that internal splits did not leave then 'base-less', it has also increased the pressure and electoral focus on them."

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