“Sattre vilagi irum, pillaai”

On the campaign trail from the DMK-led alliance, the Congress' number one campaigner, P Chidambaram was at his trailblazing best in his just-concluded speech in Cuddalore. The Finance Minister reeled out statistics to rubbish the TN Government's claims that the Centre was least helpful when calamity struck the state.

Mr. Chidambaram stated that a sum of Rs. 5025 crores had been allocated for the state, of which a major portion still remains unclaimed. For example, the State Government was to have claimed reimbursements for houses built for tsunami victims. Yet, not a penny has been claimed so far. The FM opined that this implied that the Jayalalithaa government hadn't built a single house to rehabilitate a single victim.

Quoting from Gopalakrishna Bharati's Nandanaar Charitram, the FM had just four words for the incumbents — sattre vilagi irum, pillaai! (According to Nandanaar Charitram, Nandanaar, a person born of a low caste, was refused admission into a Siva temple. Overcome with grief, he stood outside the shrine to catch a glimpse of Lord Siva. However his view was obstructed by the Nandi, and Nandanaar sang, requesting to Nandi to stay aside to help him get an unobstructed view.) Mr. Chidambaram mentioned that Amma's government was like a Nandi which obstructed the implementation of any good plans formulated for Tamil Nadu at the Centre.

He also questioned the logic behind the ADMK's promise of 10 kilos of free rice, and wondered how Mr. Vaiko who threw tantrums at the DMK's election promise of rice at Rs 2 per kg, suddenly found logic in the ADMK's claims.

The Jayendra factor

In general, the ADMK garners the lions' share of Brahmin votes (i.e. if the BJP isn't in the fray). The DMK doesn't do too well with them, for obvious reasons. However in the upcoming elections, the ADMK should find itself no better placed than any other party in winning votes from this community.

The reason? The incarceration of the head of the Kanchi mutt, Jayendra Saraswati. Across the Hindu community, opinion has been divided as to whether the Government was right in sending the pontiff to jail. Despite the divided opinion, most people believe that this was an act of vendetta on the part of the Government. And this doesn't augur well of the ADMK.

In a constituency like Mylapore, which has a predominant Brahmin population, the ADMK would not find the going that easy. Jayendra's arrest being on the major events during Amma's rule, it would weigh heavily on the voter's mind.

Probably the ADMK is now thinking, it would have been better had they kept politics out of religion, for now, they are finding it tough to keep religion out of politics…