TN Assembly polls: Making of a manifesto

Chennai: Though election fever has gathered heat in Tamil Nadu, only a handful of political parties have released their manifestos, while a majority of outfits are still involved in hectic deliberations to bring out the vision document which sometimes emerge as the “hero” of the elections.

Principal opposition party DMK and Tamil Maanila Congress and DMDK have released their manifestos. But all eyes are on the vision document of AIADMK, which is still not ready.

Though AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa have addressed half-a-dozen public meetings, there is no official word on when the party’s manifesto would be out.

Manifestos have assumed greater importance in Tamil Nadu elections in the past decade after  DMK in 2006 promised colour television sets to every household.

The promise by DMK became the centerpiece of the elections with the then finance minister P. Chidambaram even terming it “hero of 2006 Assembly polls”.
Since then, the freebie culture began in Tamil Nadu with the then ruling party AIADMK promising gold for people though it lost the poll. However, in 2011 polls, AIADMK again reached out to voters with promises like free mixers, wet grinders and table fans along with laptops for school and college students.

Political analysts feel major parties like AIADMK may be adopting a “wait and watch” policy before releasing their manifestos as they could get clues and counter ideas after having a look at the manifestos of rivals.

Sources say every political party has a specialised team of experts to draft the manifesto and members of the team interact with a cross-section of people and get their inputs.

While the ruling party always claims it had implemented a majority of the promises or sometimes all of them during its five-year tenure, the opposition always accuse the ruling dispensation of failing the people by “ignoring the election promises.” The war of words between the government of the day and opposition was witnessed in 2011 and this election as well.

This election, the AIADMK says it has gone beyond election promises and has implemented schemes such as Amma canteens, Amma drinking water, Amma pharmacy and Amma cements.

During campaigning since April 9, Jayalalithaa has flaunted the schemes her government had implemented since May 2011. Her refrain has been that she always promises things she would be able to deliver, but this time around she has done what she has not promised as well. However, the DMK has accused Jayalalithaa of not fulfilling 90 per cent of promises made by AIADMK in 2011.