hile election campaigns and rallies can be great fun, it is next to impossible to tell which way the vote will go based just on these large congregations of enthusiastic, nay, frenzied cadre, cheering at everything even before the leader arrives.
At an AIADMK public meeting, it is all the more so.
On Saturday afternoon, long snaking queues plodded their way to the large ground that most people in this city know as the ‘trade fair place’. At one point, they gathered in clutches, pushing and shoving each other, all of them trying at once to get into the venue.
Inside, vendors sat in segregated groups, peddling everything from water and tea, to DVDs, and sundal for an evening snack. R. Murugan is among them, calling out to passers-by, and stopping to talk about his allegiance to “Amma.”
There is no talk about who they will vote for. Here, it is assumed that there is only one symbol, the two leaves, that is material. Anyone who asks the question is clearly an outsider. As we are, perhaps.
Nevertheless, it is easy even for outsiders, to find their way around the grounds — in the distance the massive stage, all in green, beckons.
“Walk right down and turn left,” someone tells us, kindly, but rather unnecessarily. It’s a long walk down across the arena, cut off into parcel-sized slots, where a motley crowd sits, and rises, periodically cheering and whistling.
A minder is always by the corner, shouting out to someone who is truly unruly or is constantly standing. At this, the crowd shifts itself, settling down, until the next moment.
The sun’s dropping down on the horizon, and gets in our eye as it goes down. Especially, when everyone looks up to wave at the drone that hovers overhead.
And when finally the sun sets, the music changes. And voila, there she is. Even if you could not see her, though we were lucky, you could tell from the cheers. “Amma, Amma, Amma,” like the chant in a cricket stadium when Dhoni swivels his willow in the slog overs.
Jayalalithaa has arrived.
In raptures
If you are lucky, as we were, you will miss the press enclosure and get to sit with a bunch of women supporters of Ms. Jayalalithaa. That is a life-changing moment. These women go into raptures, even at the word Amma . Nirmala Devi’s eyes glaze over as she waves her hand to the music that’s playing in the background, again a panegyric for the leader.
Around her, the women are amused, but clearly proud of her, they lift their bronzed arms, the green of the ‘two leaves’ tattoo is unmistakable as they vigorously the victory symbol that MGR cleverly picked for his party as he split from the DMK. They are joking with the security guard, bristling at someone who jokingly asks a young girl to show the DMK’s symbol, but automatically slip into attention mode when the stage lights up. For them, with her presence.
Loud cheers rent the air as Ms. Jayalalithaa pronounces the slogan for the campaign, “ Makkalal naan; Makkalukkaga naan .”
The slogan took form with her audio message for the people post last year’s devastating floods; loosely translated, it means: “I’m of the people, and I’m for the people.” “I work tirelessly for all of you,” she says, and is nearly drowned out by the cheers. Her speech is punctuated by these cheers.
Sometimes the crowd roars, sometimes it purrs, depending on what the leader says. As she lists her welfare schemes one by one, the applause becomes deafening. She picks the women in the crowd, addresses them, her loyalists, and the audience is beyond the hill with joy.
A few of them spring up in spontaneous dance until a minder sends them back to their chairs again. Even as the Chief Minister thunders about her government’s achievements post floods, listing out the funds that were utilised and the various schemes launched, the crowd keeps up the tempo and their undying enthusiasm.
Nirmala Devi, sitting behind us, seems to have reached a new level of ecstasy. She is now standing up and swaying, eyes fixed on the leader on stage. As Ms. Jayalalithaa vanishes behind the green curtain, she stabs the air and hoarsely shouts, “Amma, you are our leader — forever.”
Election campaigns can be a lot of fun.
“Amma, Amma, Amma,” chanted the crowd like in
a cricket stadium cheering on Dhoni
