It is no secret that political parties in Tamil Nadu bribe crowds in cash and kind to attend rallies ahead of state and Parliamentary elections. But this year, as the state prepares for the May 16 Assembly polls, crowd mobilisation has come into sharp focus following the deaths of four people at Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s campaigns in Vriddhachalam and Salem in the past two weeks. Most of the deaths are related to the scorching temperatures Tamil Nadu has seen this month – with the mercury often touching 40 degrees Celsius. Last week, the weather department even issued a heat wave warning for Chennai and other parts of the state.
The copter conundrum
While Opposition leaders like M Karunanidhi, MK Stalin and others usually schedule their rallies for 7 pm, when blazing day temperatures have considerably subsided, Jayalalithaa’s rallies outside Chennai are usually held at noon, when the sun is at its peak. This is because the chief minister wants to return to the state capital the same day, said an AIADMK leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There are rules which prevent her chopper from landing after 6 pm,” said the leader. “So there is no way we can hold a rally later in the evening.” When asked why it was essential for the leader to return to Chennai after every rally, the party leader said he did not wish to comment on such things.
In Vriddhachalam, about 230 km from Chennai, Jayalalithaa was scheduled to address a crowd at 3 pm on April 11. Party workers brought in hordes of people from the neighbouring districts of Ariyalur and Perambalur to the venue as early as 9 am. There was no shade at the venue. As the mercury climbed, a mini-stampede ensued when exhausted women, unable to bear the heat, tried to leave the area. Two men died at that rally. Although the cause of death is unconfirmed, police officials told Scroll.in that they collapsed at the venue and were carried out. Six women present at the rally were also admitted to hospital where they were treated for severe dehydration and heat stroke. Then again, on Wednesday, at a Jayalalithaa rally in Salem, 340 km from the state capital, two men attending the rally died of a heat stroke.
How crowds are brought
Predictably, Opposition parties have hit out at Jayalalithaa for being inconsiderate. Images such as the one below – in which the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam accuses the CM of being silent over the deaths at her rallies – are doing the rounds of messaging service WhatsApp.
But despite the DMK's criticism that the AIADMK pays people to attend its rallies, the rival party is as guilty of paid crowd mobilisation. In fact, party workers from both the AIADMK and the DMK told Scroll.in that they have a well-oiled system to bring crowds to rallies addressed by their leaders.
Each party has a booth in-charge for every 100 voters, said a mid-level AIADMK worker, who did not want to be named. “There are a minimum of five booth in-charges for each booth,” he said. “In densely populated urban areas, there are more than five per booth.” For instance, there are over 250 polling booths in the Anna Nagar constituency in Chennai alone, and each booth has around 750 to 1,000 voters. Thus, between seven and 10 booth in-charges each from the AIADMK and DMK are present at each booth in that constituency.
When public meetings by senior leaders are scheduled, MLAs and district secretaries activate these grassroots workers. Each booth in-charge has to bring in a specific number of people to the event depending on how big the show of strength needs to be. “We give sarees and veshtis (dhotis) with party colours, Rs 200 per head for men and Rs 150 per head for women,” said a DMK leader. Those who attend rallies are also given food like mutton or chicken biriyani.
Booth in-charges also organise transportation – minibuses, share autos and sometimes even small trucks – to ferry people from urban slums and rural villages to the venue, and back.
“Nowadays we don’t give cash at the spot,” said an AIADMK worker. “We give them tokens that they can exchange the next day with the booth in-charge for cash. The money to be distributed is given to the booth in-charge by the district secretaries or the MLA’s team.”
The system is flawless. But workers have been unsettled by the four deaths in two weeks.
“This practice of paying people to attend rallies has been going on for a number of years now,” said N Gopalswami, former Chief Election Commissioner. “When politicians and the people are complicit in such things, there is nothing that the Election Commission can do. People need to say no.”
But elections are also when the poor in the state can make a little money on the side. Unfortunately, they are the ones who sometimes end up paying with their lives.
