Tamil Nadu Set For One Of Its Most ‘Disruptive’ Polls As Campaigning Ends

Chennai: Seasoned politicians from the Dravidian heartland on Tuesday made a last minute pitch hoping to entice the over 5.73 crore strong electorate of Tamil Nadu on April 23, the polling day for the Assembly elections, which promises to be exciting and intense never before witnessed as Kollywood’s top hero C Joseph Vijay seeks to disrupt the bipolar landscape dominated by the DMK and AIADMK for nearly 50 years.

While as many as 4,023 candidates are in the fray in what is technically a four-cornered contest, the key fight is expected to be between the fronts led by the two Dravidian parties and Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, which is making its electoral debut. Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi, a Tamil nationalist party, is the other player contesting across 234 seats.

Despite Vijay not campaigning adequately – in fact he did not even tour the entire state even once – the hysterical crowds that he drew where he went including in the State Capital on the last, indicated the extent of damage he could cause to the long time players. His magnetic appeal – thanks to his film charisma – among the first time voters, youth and women has clearly rattled the Dravidian players, though the DMK officially shied away from acknowledging it this season.

DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin, who had consistently framed this election as a battle between Tamil Nadu and New Delhi, thereby insinuating that the AIADMK is subservient to the ruling BJP at the Centre, steered clear of attacking Vijay even once. Instead, he left the job to his son and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, who too only fired soft salvos instead of directly attacking Vijay. The idea was not to further Vijay’s framing of the contest as TVK Vs DMK battle.

However, the AIADMK did not hide its consternation. Its leader Edappadi K Palaniswami issued an open appeal to first time voters on Tuesday evening urging them to exercise an informed choice just as they would do before joining a college. In recent days, Palaniswami sought to project himself as a messiah of the first time voters reminding them that as Chief Minister he had issued an order to declare all of them promoted to the next class during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, on the last day of campaigning, he released an additional set of 10 poll promises, largely targetted at the farmers hoping that weaning them towards him could potentially offset losses in erosion of first time voters.

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Vijay, who fancies himself to be the next Chief Minister, too showed some sign of desperation on Tuesday evening despite his party men predicting a landslide victory. While he attacked the DMK and BJP (instead of AIADMK), Vijay chose to appeal to eligible voters, particularly the 40-plus adults, through their children. He appealed to his “young friends” in every family to “pester your parents, just as you would do get a Kinder Joy and chocolate, to vote for my party.”

While the DMK, AIADMK and TVK made plenty of promises offering an array of freebies, Seeman did nothing of that. Instead, projecting himself as a credible alternative to the others, Seeman hit out at the ‘cash for votes’ and freebies culture and instead urged the voters to opt for change.