Economically poor families — mainly its women members — in urban slums have come in handy for crowd mobilisation by political parties during elections.
There were days when committed cadre, elderly citizens and impartial voters spontaneously visited public meetings and campaigns of political leaders. Ideologically influenced cadre would even wait for hours to listen to speeches of firebrand politicians. They would not expect others to spend for their visits to public meetings.
The situation has changed. Fading faith in leaders and influence of social media have led to a decline in interest among people, particularly youth, in attending political meetings. Hence, political parties are forced to look towards the economically downtrodden for crowd mobilisation for campaigns.
Similar to agents recruiting construction workers, there are middlemen across the city to bring in people to public meetings. Some of them maintain a list of people, who show an inclination to attend them.
Political parties have no option other than to “stage manage” the show by mobilising people, irrespective of their political affiliations, a local functionary of a Dravidian party told The Hindu .
The parties pay ₹200 per head for four hours. Besides providing food packets, preferably briyani, arrangements for transport are also made.
The poor, mainly construction workers and unemployed women, are main target groups for showcasing as party workers. They are in high demand when the campaign peaks.
“It is like working for daily wages. They prefer going to political meetings than to work as they don’t have to do anything physical except wait for the arrival of leaders,” he points out.
An elderly woman of East Boulevard Road, who attended the campaign of a candidate on Andal Street on Monday, said ₹200 was big money for poor people. “If I stay at home, who will pay me?” she quips.
According to another political leader, parties have identified several areas in the city for mobilising crowd: Sathyamoorthy Nagar, Viragupettai, Karuvattupettai, Kamaraj Nagar, Suranchery, Annai Sathiya Nagar, Chinnasamy Nagar, Kamala-Nehru Nagar, Uppiliyar Street, Kalnayakkan Street, Pensioners Colony and Kallangadu.
