Edge for AIADMK a media bubble: Peter

Chennai

The three-time MLA hailing from Tenkasi, who kept tongues wagging even in the Assembly, courtesy his informed and yet rabble rousing speeches in the House, believes that “advantage AIADMK is a bubble” created by the media, and in deciding to join PWF at the eleventh hour the TMC has lost its credibility and Vasan has let down his cadre by supporting “Vijayakant for CM.” He spoke on alliance politics and many more issues in a  no-holds barred interview to DTNext.

 It is widely mentioned that ruling AIADMK may have an edge in a multi-cornered contest. Was that belief palpable in your campaigns?

‘Advantage AIADMK’ is just a bubble created by the media. I have been going around the state for quite some time for election campaign. I had the opportunity to address meetings along with DMK president Karunanidhi and, on one occasion, I travelled with DMK treasurer M K Stalin. In a non-descript village called Kadayam, around 10,000 people had gathered for Stalin’s visit. Wherever I went I saw a surge in the crowd, especially of women and youngsters.

I compared it with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s campaign. Her campaigns look stage-managed and the ‘procured’ crowd is without any life. Even in the traditional AIADMK bastions, there is a remarkable change (read as tilt) towards the DMK-Congress alliance. Twenty-five days ago, media exaggerated the whole combination (DMDK PWF-TMC alliance) and told people that they would get a major share of votes. Of late, the whole campaign has fizzled out. People are laughing at their (DMDK PWF-TMC) campaign. I don’t see their presence anywhere. Their candidates are abstaining from campaigning. Cadre are reluctant to come out in support. It includes TMC, people who are still with TMC.

You say TMC cadre are also dispirited. But the same TMC (the one you had quit) is said to have a sizeable presence in the delta region. Could it affect your alliance chances there?

In elections, people will only support the stand of a political party. They may like or respect some individuals, but they vote for a political stand. Unfortunately, the TMC has taken a stand to support Vijayakant as CM. That has not gone well with the TMC cadre. Most of them feel that they have been left out and let down. They never thought they would be asked to support such a chief ministerial candidate. They thought Vasan would be the CM candidate, and hence a lot of disappointment and frustration among TMC cadre. Slowly, they are going out of the party. Some are moving to Congress and some to regional parties. They think there may be better avenues there. TMC is losing ground.

Change seems to be the catchword of the May 16 election. All except the AIADMK chant that mantra. The third front TMC is also keeping that refrain…

You (TMC) cannot take a stand 24 hours before the election. If you want to project yourself as an alternative leader or an alternative team, you should have done it over the past one year. You should have built public opinion and prepared your cadre. You should have taken a political stand and argued for that. Till the last day, you have been bargaining with AIADMK, now you say the party (AIADMK) is corrupt and they have done enormous damage to TN. So what is your credibility. Nobody will believe TMC.

What other option did Vasan have? It is suspected the AIADMK was the reason for the alliance not taking shape…

It is not the fault of AIADMK. TMC should have taken a timely decision. TMC should not have postponed the election decision to the last hour. TMC should not blame them. As a leader one should be able to foresee the shape of things to come. You should have an exit door, an alternative to support. You had not thought about it.
 
This election, both Congress and DMK have downplayed freebies. It is reliably learnt that AIADMK might announce freebies and attempt to create a buzz by releasing it close to the election. Will freebies sell?

I don’t think so. We have 1.5 crore young voters. They want employment opportunities, good education and infrastructure. They don’t want any kind of freebies. Those 1.5 crore votes will decide the fate of this poll.

Corruption seems to be another deciding issue this time. Corruption and dynastic politics are two issues that rock Congress and DMK. 2G had played spoilsport even in 2011. How confident are you now?

These (2G) are allegations made long back. We have faced so many elections after that. They are non-issues. Now the question before the electorate is what type of government do they want? They have only one alternative — dual leadership of Stalin and Kalaignar. A combination of efficiency and experience. Definitely, it will go to masses and fetch votes.

Opposition parties criticise your (Congress-DMK) alliance as controversial. For instance, Congress and DMK have contrarian views on releasing Rajiv killers. How do you intend to iron these differences out?

They are dead issues. We have to see where we are together. We agree on so many issues. There may be a few differences. That is not relevant in this election. Development and good government will be real issues and the rest are non-issues.

Acrimony within the state Congress also seems to rock the alliance. Former union minister P Chidambaram publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the seats DMK had allocated to them. Will that not affect the camaraderie between two party cadre?

This query should be put to Chidambaram. In an electoral alliance, it is natural for some people to get preferred constituencies. And some may not. In Congress, the high command decides everything. Some amount of dissatisfaction exists in every party. Those things will be taken care of when people (read cadre and functionaries) go to the field.