With campaigns being one-way only where candidates list their achievements and promises, various associations have been organising meetings with the contestants this election. These meetings allow them to know their candidates better and make an informed choice.
“During the meeting, we do list our demands and problems... Along with that, the meeting lets us know the candidates and helps us make a choice. We told those who came that they should put an end to corruption and their spending of the MLA constituency development fund should be transparent,” said Kamakshi Subramanian, co-founder, SPARK. The association interacted with the Velachery candidates. This time owing to the COVID-19 restrictions, a few associations held online meetings. The FOMRRA, an association of OMR residents, had an online meeting with candidates. This is the second such meeting it had held with key contestants.
Pleas through media
However, not everyone could hold meetings this year. The Choolaimedu Exnora Innovators Club, which holds voter awareness programmes and meets candidates in the Assembly, Lok Sabha and local bodies elections, could not conduct meetings with candidates because of the pandemic. “Most of our members are senior citizens and we did not want to endanger them in any manner. We make a manifesto, we could not make even that since we did not have our meeting hall. Nevertheless, we made our needs, including decongestion of Nelson Manickam Road, heard through the media,” explains Kasturirangan of the Club.
Along with residential welfare associations, the chambers of commerce held interactive sessions. The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, conducts ‘Meet Your Candidate’ sessions almost every election, inviting the candidates for a meeting with members of the Chamber and other associations.
Infrastructure needs
C. Balasubramanian, president of the Chamber, says it takes the suggestions from other industry and trade associations and voluntary organisations and compiles a list of major infrastructure needs of the city. It presents these demands to the candidates.
“We request the candidates to respond to these demands and not to oppose each other during the meeting. This year, we invited one candidate each from major regional and national parties... Such an event helps us follow up with the elected representatives...,” he says. However, the meetings are not open to all in order that the programme may go off without arguments or politically motivated questions.
Though these meetings allow residents to air their grievances and extract promises from candidates, they do not have a larger picture, feel commentators.
“Other countries have public debates in which the public can pose pertinent questions even to the presidential candidates. But here we do not have such a pattern. Nevertheless, that the people have begun raising questions is by itself a good sign. They need to broaden their outlook since candidates need to be held accountable,” says a political commentator.
According to historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy, most of these meetings are conducted by residential welfare associations. But unfortunately the middle class does not have a sense of the “larger picture” when it comes to discussions.
“It exclusively focusses on municipal matters without a sense of the larger picture. Burning issues of the day are many. For me, the increasing polarisation of society, the misuse of religion and faith for narrow political ends, the lack of distribution of power across the lower castes and classes are the issues that should come to the forefront wherein the formation of the State government is at stake. And in the present context, the formation of the State government has larger implications for national politics,” Mr. Venkatachalapathy says.
