A scientific strategy that focussed on reaching each individual voter paid rich dividends for the AIADMK in their battle against former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran, say poll watchers.
S.R. Vijaya Kumar of AIADMK, on Friday, defeated Mr. Maran by a margin of 45,811 votes in the Chennai Central Lok Sabha constituency. Dayanidhi Maran, who was said to have a strong support base in the constituency with over 2 lakh minorities, secured just 2,87,485 votes.
In Chennai Central constituency, the strategy involved stationing AIADMK cadre on the ground in each of the 1,153 parts — the lowest unit in electoral terms. The number of electors in each part ranges from 900 to 1500.
The strategy chalked out by functionaries, led by mayor Saidai Duraisamy and Gokula Indira, created a network of motivated workers, fixed responsibility on 16 of them for each of the 1,153 parts, and enlisted one worker to communicate and persuade 100 voters during the campaign period.
“Hundreds of us, inspired by periodic meetings of party workers in each of the six Assembly segments, used to visit neighbourhoods where our 100 electors resided. Each of us visited 10 to 20 homes and requested residents to permit us to talk about the Chief Minister’s welfare measures, repeatedly. Over 20 per cent of the residents denied permission. But we were consistently polite, and it worked,” says a functionary.
Attributing the success to Amma’s aura, Mr. Vijaya Kumar says the workers categorised electors based on ‘ideology’, before talking about the CM’s ‘welfare measures’ and ‘development initiatives’.
“AIADMK workers in each neighbourhood also reminded electors of corruption charges against the DMK candidate. Corruption was an issue this elections,” said Mangala Raj, former councillor of the Chennai Corporation.
Confident of a third term, DMK candidate Dayanidhi Maran began his campaign with more attention on consolidation of DMK strongholds.
Aware of this, AIADMK swung into action: “We created a strong network of functionaries,” says an AIADMK leader. The network of grassroots functionaries could reach all electors in the entire constituency in just an hour.
