Opinion - News Analysis   

Leader vague, followers specific

By Suresh Nambath

SATTANKULAM FEB. 18 . The AIADMK general secretary, Jayalalithaa, says she is above all considerations of caste and religion. Maybe. But that is not the message the rest of the party is sending to Sattankulam voters.

The AIADMK ministers and functionaries are helping out in the conduct of temple festivals or in the activities of charitable trusts run by casteist organisations. Assistance in cash and kind awaits any outfit which wears a communal identity. Hindus, Nadars, Dalits, Konars and Thevars will all benefit from the ruling party's munificence as long as they come with their community label.

Middle-level AIADMK leaders have been assigned areas of the constituency, where their caste/community is dominant. Thus, while Ms. Jayalalithaa more or less sticks to the same text that appeals to all sections in her campaign speeches, those on the second-rung have a more specific electioneering task.

In the rural pockets, where Hindus are dominant, the AIADMK campaign managers refer to her `bold decision' in introducing the anti-conversion law. The emphasis is on Ms. Jayalalithaa doing what no other politician dared to.

However, in Sattankulam town and Nazareth, where Christians have a strong presence, the tone is defensive. She did only what Congress Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa had done before her, they point out.

While Ms. Jayalalithaa takes the constituency as a whole, the rest of the partymen handle it area by area, community by community. Where Ms. Jayalalithaa resorts to vague generalisations, the others are specific, whether in attack or in defence.

But the biggest problem faced by AIADMK campaign managers is that they are unable to use their best weapon: DMK. With the DMK not in the fray and its refraining from overtly supporting the Congress, the AIADMK is unable to rouse voter interest by attacking the DMK and its leadership. For the first time, the DMK and its allies are not the main opponents.

Thus, Ms. Jayalalithaa, so used to filling her speech with vitriol against the DMK and its president, M. Karunanidhi, is now forced to concentrate more on the achievements of her Government.

In the general election, Ms. Jayalalithaa stuck to anti-DMKism as a weapon even in constituencies, where an ally of the DMK, and not the DMK itself, was the opponent. In the eyes of the AIADMK, the Congress, unlike the DMK, is not worthy of a full-fledged attack.

However, Ms. Jayalalithaa and her partymen are indeed trying to divert the anti-incumbency factor towards the Congress. Everyone agrees that Sattankulam suffered years of neglect. But, the AIADMK functionaries are blaming Congress/ (erstwhile) Tamil Maanila Congress representatives, and not themselves.

The AIADMK line is that the blame for non-development of the constituency should be laid at the doors of the Congress/TMC. Of course, Congress speakers say the constituency was wilfully neglected by the State Government, only because it was not represented by the ruling party.

In different ways, both the AIADMK and the Congress are trying to rework the voter resentment in their favour.

In the face of the high-voltage AIADMK campaign, the task of the cash-strapped Congress workers is doubly difficult. While at one level, the Congress leadership is taking up violations of the poll code with the Election Commission, at another level, it is trying to convince the voters that the present wave of benefits from the Government will not last. Drinking water was supplied and roads were laid only under election compulsions, they point out. And these compulsions would not remain beyond February 26.

But, in the AIADMK mode of electioneering, the benefits Sattankulam got in the last couple of months are only an indication of what would be on offer later — if the AIADMK candidate wins. And, never again, if he loses. That, then, is the text and sub-text of the ruling party campaign.

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