From free TV sets to 4G smartphones, how to win some elections in India
by Manu Balachandran
It's poll time again in India. Five Indian states—Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry—are either voting right now or will do so in the next few weeks, electing 824 legislators in the process. Southern India's Tamil Nadu, home to 72 million people, has for 49 years chosen only between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)—two parties with massive ethnic Dravidian support bases. Over the last 32 years, neither has won consecutive elections. The AIADMK—led by J Jayalalithaa—is the incumbent, having won in 2011. Five years before that, the DMK, under 92-year-old K Karunanidhi, swept the polls after announcing a series of freebies for voters such as televisions and rice at R
"The DMK and AIADMK are a result of the Dravidian movement which sought a separate state on the basis of linguistic nationalism," explained Lakshmanan. "But somewhere along the line, these ideologies have taken a backstage. Now, all they look for is quick exploitative mechanism to win people's votes. By doing that, you are
only promoting feudalistic culture and the irony is that people are happy with it." Manu Balachandran | April 11, 2016 at 9:02 am | Tags: 3G, AIADMK, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Amit Shah, amma, Amma canteen, Amma unavagams, Assam, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Chennia, corruption, dmk, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, economy, election campaign, elections, fan, fire, free TV, Freebie, Freebies, general elections, grinder, india, indian economy, indian elections, J Jayalalithaa, K Karunanidhi, Kamaraj, Karunanidhi, Kerala, laptop, Lok Sabha, Madras, Mamta banerjee, milk, milk prices, mixer, MK Stalin, Narendra Modi, Parliament, prohibition, rajya sabha, reforms, smartphones, state elections, Tamil Nadu, Tarun Gogoi, televisions, Temple, West Bengal | | URL: http://wp.me/p2G6tR-2LrO
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