I am not talking about the bye-election for the Parliamentary seat of Hissar, Haryana, but about the local body elections in my home state of Tamil Nadu, especially in my home town of Chennai.
Team Anna might boast that their campaign against the Congress party was the reason for its third place finish at Hissar, but even the last time around, without Team Anna, the party *was* in the 3rd place. I don’t know how making a party remain in 3rd place makes for a successful campaign.
No doubt Team Anna would come up with a startling, shrill explanation and beware if you dare question it - you will be termed corrupt!
And political parties be warned about questioning them - else we will have a hunger strike; Hunger strike with dances, samosas, vadas and bhel puris for the public to come and have a look - like visitors in a zoo.
:-P
To get back to point, the 2nd phase of elections for local bodies in TN was conducted as scheduled today, and by all accounts it was a success. The first phase was on 17th, which included the fair city of Madras that is Chennai and not many of us expected large turnouts (~ 70%) like what we saw during the Assembly elections in April. What we were expecting was around mid to high 50s.
So most of us, neutrals like me or sympathizers of the 2 big parties - the ADMK and DMK, weren’t surprised at a similar turnout - around 48%. It was a different matter that party workers of most major parties, the ADMK, DMK, INC, DMDK or even other smaller ones, probably egged on by their leadership, had a more optimistic view and appear shattered at the turnout.
Mind you, I am writing about the metropolitan area of Chennai; Others parts of the states had more healthier percentages, probably due to the fact that they are smaller when compared to Chennai and the candidates probably know most of the voters.
Additionally I suspect there is also the peer pressure in such smaller cites, towns and villages, to go out and vote, which is absent in the metro.
Whatever, I think the Vijayakanth’s DMDK is the most disappointed party at the turn out; I feel that their hopes of repeating the electoral victories in the April Assembly elections and capturing the 2nd highest number of local bodies has just evaporated.
Similarly, I think the ruling ADMK is the most shocked party at the voter apathy. Their strategy of going alone in these polls has probably left the door open for the smaller parties to sneak in, instead of wiping them off the face of TN.
As for the mild Rahul effect:
First my knowledge is limited to overhearing some two dozen voters in my ward and the one nearby.
But in both these wards I was surprised to hear the ‘neutral public’ saying that they opted for Congress councillors in their wards, while preferring the ADMK’s Mayoral candidate.
Which was quite a shock as I understand the very same people had voted for ADMK just 6 months back and rejected the DMK/Congress candidates whole heartedly.
Of the 2 dozen or so I overheard, the breakup is like:
Shocking really!
:-D
But then no one knows what is happening on the ground. As I wrote in Who will rule the Fort and Who will storm the Fort in April during Assembly elections, everyone of the daily, eveninger and magazines have their own slant. About the only thing they agree upon is the strong possibility of political re-alignment after the elections. I think it will happen, but not in the way they are hoping for.
;-)
If you don’t believe me, just have a look at the headlines of yesterday’s Tamil newspapers (English ones weren’t much different). Not one of them could give a consistent figure for the total percentage of votes polled.
Clockwise from top left: Dina_Thanthi - 75%, Dina_Karan - 70%, Dina_Mani - 77%, Dina_Malar - 58%.
Yuck!
Team Anna might boast that their campaign against the Congress party was the reason for its third place finish at Hissar, but even the last time around, without Team Anna, the party *was* in the 3rd place. I don’t know how making a party remain in 3rd place makes for a successful campaign.
No doubt Team Anna would come up with a startling, shrill explanation and beware if you dare question it - you will be termed corrupt!
And political parties be warned about questioning them - else we will have a hunger strike; Hunger strike with dances, samosas, vadas and bhel puris for the public to come and have a look - like visitors in a zoo.
:-P
To get back to point, the 2nd phase of elections for local bodies in TN was conducted as scheduled today, and by all accounts it was a success. The first phase was on 17th, which included the fair city of Madras that is Chennai and not many of us expected large turnouts (~ 70%) like what we saw during the Assembly elections in April. What we were expecting was around mid to high 50s.
So most of us, neutrals like me or sympathizers of the 2 big parties - the ADMK and DMK, weren’t surprised at a similar turnout - around 48%. It was a different matter that party workers of most major parties, the ADMK, DMK, INC, DMDK or even other smaller ones, probably egged on by their leadership, had a more optimistic view and appear shattered at the turnout.
Mind you, I am writing about the metropolitan area of Chennai; Others parts of the states had more healthier percentages, probably due to the fact that they are smaller when compared to Chennai and the candidates probably know most of the voters.
Additionally I suspect there is also the peer pressure in such smaller cites, towns and villages, to go out and vote, which is absent in the metro.
Whatever, I think the Vijayakanth’s DMDK is the most disappointed party at the turn out; I feel that their hopes of repeating the electoral victories in the April Assembly elections and capturing the 2nd highest number of local bodies has just evaporated.
Similarly, I think the ruling ADMK is the most shocked party at the voter apathy. Their strategy of going alone in these polls has probably left the door open for the smaller parties to sneak in, instead of wiping them off the face of TN.
As for the mild Rahul effect:
First my knowledge is limited to overhearing some two dozen voters in my ward and the one nearby.
But in both these wards I was surprised to hear the ‘neutral public’ saying that they opted for Congress councillors in their wards, while preferring the ADMK’s Mayoral candidate.
Which was quite a shock as I understand the very same people had voted for ADMK just 6 months back and rejected the DMK/Congress candidates whole heartedly.
Of the 2 dozen or so I overheard, the breakup is like:
| ADMK | DMK | INC | DMDK | Others | Ind. | |
| Mayor | 20 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Councillor | 0 | 2 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
- The 1st is that what many ADMK party workers and sympathizers had feared, seems to have happened. The voters without party allegiance (neutrals) seemed to have no further enthusiasm for ADMK, once DMK was defeated in the Assembly elections.
- The 2nd is that what DMDK party workers and sympathizers had boasted, seems not to have happened. The neutrals do not seem to be enthused by the DMDK and prefer INC over them.
- The 3rd is that the DMK party workers and sympathizers had known all along. The neutral voters are disgusted with the last 5 years of DMK administration and it would require years and monumental foolishness on the part of J. Jayalalithaa to bring them back to DMK.
- The 4th is that the neutrals do not seem to like the criticism by the so called ‘Tamil Sympathizers’ (basically ‘LTTE sympathizers’, like Seeman, Vaiko and the lot) of the Congress party. I overheard a couple actually saying that by voting alternately for DMK or ADMK, they have failed to show the support for ‘national’ causes and hence these rubbish rearing up their heads.
- The 5th shocker is the claims by every political party about their party membership - almost every major and not so major party claims membership of over 1 crore. If every member of every political party had voted, they alone would have ensured near 100% polling.
:-D
But then no one knows what is happening on the ground. As I wrote in Who will rule the Fort and Who will storm the Fort in April during Assembly elections, everyone of the daily, eveninger and magazines have their own slant. About the only thing they agree upon is the strong possibility of political re-alignment after the elections. I think it will happen, but not in the way they are hoping for.
;-)
If you don’t believe me, just have a look at the headlines of yesterday’s Tamil newspapers (English ones weren’t much different). Not one of them could give a consistent figure for the total percentage of votes polled.
Clockwise from top left: Dina_Thanthi - 75%, Dina_Karan - 70%, Dina_Mani - 77%, Dina_Malar - 58%.
Yuck!
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