It is 3.30 p.m. at Y. Othakadai, on the outskirts of Madurai. As the sun prepares to glide down the horizon, its intensity is unable to breach the record set on Tamil New Year’s Day.
The crowd waits in anticipation for a son on the ascent. M. K. Stalin is scheduled to arrive in a short while to seek votes for the DMK.
The venue is significant. All of Madurai knows that Y. Othakadai used to be the place from where M.K. Alagiri, the elder son of DMK president M. Karunanidhi, used to launch his poll campaign. He began his 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign from the Yoga Narasimhar Temple at nearby Narasingam, and went on to become a Cabinet Minister. Subsequent campaigns also began near the temple.
The stage and script are almost the same. Only the protagonist and his costume are different this time.
Located a few kilometres from the campaign spot is the Dinakaran office that bore the brunt of the fury of Mr. Alagiri’s supporters when the Tamil daily published a survey on the younger DMK scion’s popularity on May 9, 2007.
For those who work in the building, which carries memories of the arson and death of three employees, the issue of succession in the party has been settled.
The crowd roars in appreciation as Mr. Stalin emerges on top of the campaign van in a blue check shirt, rolled up to his elbow. He engages the voters in a dialogue by throwing questions at them.
Each question elicits the desired answer. His rhetoric is pegged around the party’s manifesto, which he calls the “super hero” of the 2016 election destined to liberate Tamil Nadu from the clutches of “villain” Jayalalithaa.
For the first time, a political party has addressed district-level issues in its manifesto, he claims.
Starting from prohibition, the DMK leader lists the promises made. He claims that each household will save Rs. 100 to Rs. 2,000 if monthly billing for power consumption comes into force. Waiver of farm and education loans and reduction in milk price by Rs. 7 per litre are the other promises that kindle the crowd’s curiosity.
He promises a “commission, collection and corruption-free government” if people vote for the DMK to make his father the Chief Minister for the sixth time.
The DMK leader then accuses Chief Minister Jayalalithaa of not meeting the people or attending office in the Secretariat regularly, all the while taking a salary. “Will it be allowed in the case of any employee,” he asks the crowd.
At Melur, now infamous for its granite quarries, Mr. Stalin talks of the promise that a DMK government will undertake mining of sand, granite and garnet by hiring unemployed youth.
He does not forget jallikattu , the traditional sport of the region.
“We will ensure that apart from jallikattu other traditional sports like manjuvirattu and rekla race are allowed.”
In Madurai South, which has a majority of Saurashtrians, whose primary occupation is weaving, Mr. Stalin refers to the plight of weavers and what the party will offer to alleviate their sufferings.
For the DMK leader, the campaign trail is an extension of his earlier ‘Namakku Naame’ tour in which he held tête-à-têtes with different sections of people.
While he claimed great success in that tour, it can be fairly said that Friday’s campaign was a success too. “Polanthuttar [Excellent]!” exclaims S. Murugesan of Tirumogur, who has come to Y. Othakadai to hear the DMK leader speak.
