Alongside the busy Pondy Bazar road, the DMK flags flutter in a slow motion as it were on a summer evening.
The DMK MP, Kanimozhi’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections is all set to begin. On either side of Sivaprakasam Street, the flagpoles dot every hundred feet.
Party workers present there spread the chairs extending the rows for a crowd. Initially, only the front rows are occupied with partymen reading eveningers. A group of Muslims, usually staunch supporters of the DMK, arrive hurriedly at the venue.
Behind the stage, folk artists whom she has nurtured over the years, tune their drums and get on to the stage to perform. After their heart-warming performance, a Karunanidhi lookalike takes the centre stage to the amusement of the small crowd.
As the singer takes the microphone praising the party’s patriarch, the lookalike makes hilarious gestures. And after five minutes, he asks for the mike to seek votes.
As he steps down and walks behind the stage, a Range Rover arrives. Gripped with anxiety, the lookalike runs here and there and manages to get near Ms. Kanimozhi, clad in a black sari, to strike poses to the lensmen.
After a lacklustre introduction by MLA J. Anbazhagan, Ms. Kanimozhi begins her speech praising T.K.S. Elangovan, DMK’s South Chennai candidate, who was not present then.
In a style similar to that of her brother M.K. Stalin, the DMK MP launched an attack on the AIADMK government.
But, she did not utter a single word about national politics. As she winds up her speech after 30 minutes, she charges the AIADMK with failure to bring in new investments.
