Freebies Vs spectrum

The DMK in its last assembly election manifesto promised free colour television, rice at Rs 2/kg, and distribution of land to landless people. This time, when a reporter asked Karunanidhi whether his party's manifesto will prove to be a hero like the previous one, prompt came the reply from the Chief Minister, '' It would be a heroine this time.”

This time, the party manifesto has given importance to womenfolk as it promises free grinders and mixies ( on choice) to people if they vote him to power again. It promises 35 kg of free rice per month to BPL familes and laptops to college students.

But the heroine has found an equal match in the AIADMK's manifesto, which came later. It promised free grinders, mixies and a fan - all these three things together. It also promises 4 grams of gold for making mangalsutra to educated women from the BPL families for their marriages along with the existing Rs 25,000 cash assistance. The AIADMK also promises laptops to eleventh and twelfth standard school students.

As the DMK seems to be losing its traditional urban vote bank, it has now started looking towards rural areas for support. The rural areas were earlier considered as the stronghold of the AIADMK. This was evident during the 2006 assembly elections in which the DMK lost seven to the AIADMK in Chennai district alone.

This time as the spectrum issue looms large over the educated urban voters mind, the DMK is now focusing more on rural outposts. The DMK heavy weights like Finance Minister K.Anbazhagan and Deputy Chief minister and son of Karunanidhi, M K Stalin have moved to 'safe' constituencies in Chennai. Even the DMK Chief has now moved his base to Tiruvarur, his hometown and a rural hub in the central Tamil Nadu. This time, it has given six constituencies in Chennai district to its allies.

''DMK in the last five years have unveiled a plethora of welfare schemes which included 20 kilo rice a month at the rate of Re 1 to ration card holders. Many poor households in the rural segments now have a CTV. Almost nine lakh destitute, widow, old age pensioners get Rs 500 per month. The party has promised to raise it to Rs 750 in its recent manifesto. A masterstroke, the party now has promised free bus passes to all above sixty years of age.

“Do you think that the people will vote for any other party than us?”, questioned a DMK District Secretary to TSI.


The DMK officebearer stressed that the spectrum controversy was an issue only with the urban voters and that the people in rural belt hardly know about it. Though the AIADMK has decided to up the ante on this Rs 1,70,000 crore scam, the DMK feels this will have less impact in the rural areas.

Another DMK masterstroke that the political observers consider praiseworthy is the hasssle-free seat sharing between the allies. Out of 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, the DMK will contest only on 119 seats, just two more than 117 seats required to have simple majority in the assembly. It has given away all the seats to allies and has decided to take a call on forming a coalition if required after the results are announced.

But all is not well in the AIADMK. As Jayalalitha unilaterally announced the constituencies and candidates, her allies sulked and have threatened to form a third front. A normally stubborn Jayalalitha did a U-turn and came down to meet the demands of her allies. The public spat could well have been avoided. The disrespect meted out to Vaiko's MDMK by the AIADMK leadership has only resulted in Vaiko deciding to boycott the election that means a loss of 4-5 per cent of votes that were already in the AIADMK's kitty.

Rajesh, an employee of a private company in Guindy Chennai told TSI that this time his vote will not be for the DMK. But will he vote for AIADMK? He is not sure. The reason he says for not supporting the DMK is spectrum issue. But for Antony of Pattavarthy village in Tirunelveli district, there is no such issues. He always vote for the AIADMK. Interestingly, he says he has no idea of the spectrum issue.

But Sermakani, a daily labourer of Vengalpet village, voted for the DMK in the last elections. 'They gave us free rice, TV etc. I will vote for those who do good work” he says. When we asked him about the spectrum issue, he expressed his ignorance.

Rajamani, a transport corporation employee in Chennai has been following the spectrum controversy and he says he will vote for the AIADMK. “DMK's family politics is also one which I dislike”, he says.

The manifesto of freebies has irked many people in the state. This time it is freebies vs more freebies. spectrum vs freebies.

(With inputs from Perachi Kannan)