Stalin goes door-to-door seeking votes in RK Nagar

Chennai

Yes. Tea shops, bus stops, and occasionally, the banyan tree in villages and roadside vendors, would be the places where the former deputy chief minister would be most spotted during the poll campaign he launched on Friday afternoon from AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa’s R K Nagar constituency in his trademark unconventional Namakku Naame style.

Even on Friday, he went door to door, distributing pamphlets in the nook and cranny of three select lower middle class areas of R K Nagar without much fanfare.

That said; should someone have difficulty guessing the nature of his political discourse? Indeed, it was the recent Chennai floods and Chembarambakkam lake opening  that stood out as he waxed eloquent, significantly, without microphones, against Jayalalithaa.

“The campaign would be an extension of Namakku Naame. The unconventional style of going by foot and meeting voters at their doorsteps without party cadre would dominate the campaign. We want to do what Jayalalithaa cannot. Meet the voters at their doorsteps,” a close associate of Stalin told DTNext . Like in Nam akku Naame , a tour that increased the likeability of the DMK after successive poll routs, and built an aura around Stalin as a reachable and humble leader, the DMK’s chief campaigner kept party functionaries at bay, something he would do at T Nagar on Saturday from where he would also launch thinnai pracharam (doorstep campaign).

He also advised 500 and odd party men who joined the DMK at Kolathur on Friday to go to people’s doorsteps in their neighbourhoods and campaign against the ruling AIADMK.

DMK manifesto to be out on April 10

The much anticipated DMK manifesto will be released on Sunday. DMK Treasurer MK Stalin made this information public before heading off to RK Nagar to launch his poll campaign. The nine-member manifesto committee led by former party MP TR Baalu had submitted its report to party president M Karunanidhi on Thursday evening. If party sources are to be believed, the manifesto will be conspicuous by the absence of the usual freebies, but it will include other schemes like farm and education loan waiver.