TAMIL NADU, ELECTION RESULTS AND VOTERS

I am nowhere near any political analyst; nor do I hold even a Diploma in Psephology. Nevertheless as a committed citizen who never misses to vote in elections since 18, I write my random thoughts on the elections results that are being out in this largest democracy. Importantly, I restrict my opinions to the state of Tamil Nadu predominantly.

Every household has tuned in to one of the News Channels to know who is ahead in this significant race and make their own comments and express happiness, anger, frustration and so on.  Every conversation over a cup of coffee, every discussion over a morning walk and even a greeting for each other do not complete without a say on today’s election results. So much of eagerness, excitement and energy is pumped into it. Well, it has to be highly appreciated!! The society needs a lot of discussion in the first place, be it sensible or otherwise. Let people talk about elections, parties, votes, majority, minority, alliance, government and the like. Such mere talks on these topics will one day turn out to be a conversation filled with constructive content. Those days are not far, fortunately!!

Jumping to the results, as far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, there are widespread talks in tea shops, family functions, workplaces and public spaces that common public are fed up with the two Dravidian parties for their corrupt nature, dynasty style of politics, less proactive policies, failure to address issues such as water scarcity, unemployment and on the whole lift the society and its downtrodden lot, their hidden agenda in not providing quality education and health services and failing farmers consistently. OMG!!! The list has to be stopped somewhere. Therefore I mention only a handful of issues here. Despite such a looooonnnnngggg list of disappointments and disagreements among common people of Tamil Nadu, the election race is clearly between the two Dravidian parties.

In every election, we vote either DMK or ADMK to power, mostly the anti-incumbency factor works. This is absolutely fine as far as this factor works in favour of common people. YES, there are two party systems in democracies around the world that are successful and no complaints. Trust me, two party system is less complex, but our multi-party system is more interesting as it is pro-people. It might look like there is no clear verdict, but voters have their own choices and reasons for the same, most of them are rational in nature. So far, the trend in today’s show finds DMK/Congress alliance capturing majority of parliamentary seats whereas the national trending is otherwise. Yup, we are UNIQUE!!! 

Whatever, why is there no new party that projects itself to be an alternate to the existing ones and that promises to give all that we, common citizens (most particularly “the youth”), are craving for???!!! I try to identify few reasons from a lay person’s understanding.

(1)   Irrespective of our understanding of the issues pertaining to our personal, social and overall country’s development, most of us are under the assumption that the established parties only could lead the State, given their experiences and achievements in the past. It is more or less like the saying “known devil is better than the unknown angel.”

(2)   We conveniently forget the fact the these established parties were once new and the present new or small parties with genuine vision needs to be given a chance to prove themselves.

(3)   Whatever be our personal choice of candidate while voting, we are still largely persuaded by family inclinations to parties, knowingly or unknowingly.

(4)   Most of us like to associate our votes with the to-be winning parties that are identified by our media groups and peers, bound to their level of analysis and understanding respectively.

(5)   We succumb to the belief that not being a part of cabinet is the end of it and there is no point in a party winning a seat or two, unless your chosen candidate becomes a part of ruling government.

These are just a few myths we all hold strong and do not want to let go off. Notwithstanding these, voters cannot be blamed for their choice of government, instead it has to be respected. Each one of us, based on our education, gender, caste, community, nature of job, economic status, family structure, exposure to world outside, personality, needs and desires, end up choosing one among them.

If at all the State needs a real change and makeover, the real effort to bring about an alternative political scenario in Tamil Nadu with a strong vision under a visionary leader has to come from the political party itself. This is easier for a new party as it has no past with dark background. It can easily wipe off the persisting evils and bring a change. Yet, this is possible only when they begin to acknowledge the fact that any political journey has to always start from the grassroots i.e. villages. Unless the party reaches to the villages, eventually to towns, districts and assembly constituencies, one can never hope to reach heights with heightened goals.

There is a very essential need for those claiming to be alternatives to engage closely with public starting from their doorsteps. It is highly ambitious to believe that people would accept one’s presence by just appearing in political scene. Their manifestos howsoever constructive, their candidates’ impressive profiles and the star campaigns will contribute to divide the vote share to a minimum extent (though it should not be considered negligible) and not to create a massive difference. The reason why the two major parties still hold a strong position in the state is because their roots have still not eroded. Now what is needed is that the eroding roots of those major parties have to be strengthened or the new parties need to strengthen themselves. This is possible only when the roots of the alternatives get stronger. The parties need to understand this and not worry about what is to be projected outside rather what is to be strengthened inner and deeper. This will certainly take a while but will long last.

Tamil Nadu has always been clear about what is expected of their politicians and leaders. Now it is high time for the alternate political parties to realize where they are and what has to be done next in order to be a real change agent positively. Because the leader/leaders has/have to EMERGE!!!!  

P.S.: Let us not compare and complaint that AAP was able to achieve in Delhi whereas no such miracles happen here. There are a lot of differences between Delhi and Tamil Nadu and this has to be discussed independently.