Thanks be to all, even rivals
Nominees of political parties thanking district and State-level leaders is nothing new. But DMK nominee for the Coimbatore North Assembly constituency Meena Logu has gone a step ahead by thanking her political rivals. Yes, she has thanked the AIADMK councillors of the Coimbatore Corporation for helping her climb the political ladder. In the past year at several Corporation Council meetings, Ms. Logu, as Councillor representing Ward 49, was in the news as she single-handedly took on the ruling AIADMK councillors. She was also at the receiving end of the AIADMK councillors’ verbal and physical assaults in the Council and was even banned for a few Council meetings. This got her as much publicity as she had wanted and now, a nomination from the party.
Monopoly in a multi-player market
The visual media in Tamil Nadu have got used to taking live feed of the Chief Minister’s rallies from Jaya TV. However, when NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain landed in Salem to cover Ms. Jayalalithaa’s rally, he was taken aback to find that live coverage was not being allowed and took to Twitter to express his disappointment: “Not being allowed to go live from Jayalalithaa rally. Only JJ TV. First time I’ve ever come across this for any politician.”
Invoking spiritual powers
The BJP’s candidate for the Velachery Assembly constituency ,‘Dolphin’ Sridhar, seems to depend on spiritual power to win the elections. He launched his campaign by bringing in sadhus from various parts of the southern States such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to canvass for votes. More than 40 sadhus participated in the campaign by chanting mantras and blessing the crowd. The campaign was launched in a bhajana mandali on Brahmin Street.
Setting the right example
The local leaders and cadre of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) set a worthy example when they switched off the public address system at a party election meeting held in Vazhappadi town in Salem district on Tuesday evening when the ‘Azan’ (Islamic call to prayer) for the evening ‘Maghrib’ was recited from a nearby mosque. The songs hailing the party and its founder were blaring through the public address system until the arrival of Mr. Vijayakant. Total silence prevailed in the area as a large number of cadres of DMDK-People’s Welfare Front waited patiently. The songs were resumed only after the prayers were finished in the mosque.
(Reporting: Karthik Madhavan, T.K. Rohit, Syed Muthahar Saqaf and R. Srikanth; Illustrations: Sreejith R. Kumar)
