Election expenses seem to skyrocket setting new benchmarks

While there is no denying that the ensuing Parliamentary elections could be the most expensive the country has ever seen, Tamil Nadu, which has a dubious distinction of making other states envy in election expenditure, could be setting a new benchmark.

Forget spending for voters or poll expenses of party cadre, now parties have gone to new heights in even making their own cadre work. Electioneering of the DMK functionaries in Thoothukudi, where the party’s women’s wing chief Kanimozhi is most likely to contest, is a case in point.

An influential MLA of the party from the district is understood to have promised 100 sovereigns of gold in reward to cadre in his constituency if the Assembly segment fetched the maximum coverage for the party LS candidate in the district.

The influential MLA known for his spending capacity and influence among a community, party sources said, had informed his cadre that he would apportion 100 sovereign and distribute it to functionaries if they fulfill his wish of securing maximum votes from his constituency.

As if that were not enough, a few probable candidates in both parties have also identified businessmen to spend and muster traders support for them in return for MLA seat from the district.

An influential member of the opposition party has identified a restaurateur, while a big wig in the ruling party from an industrious southern district has promised post in the party. 

Likewise, some probable candidates have already started booking bikes and cars for their foot soldiers in a couple of Parliamentary seats. For their part, leaders contesting out of their home turf have rented houses in the respective constituencies and that too in areas where they could connect easily with party workers.

Sources have it that DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi who is planning to seek her maiden Lok Sabha berth from Thoothukudi has rented a house at Kurinji Nagar in the district.

Ironically, senior functionaries of the ruling AIADMK in some western districts have to cast their net to fish opposition DMK poll workers. Some hefty rewards have been promised to the double agents, who were learnt to have already collected a token reward from the agents of ruling dispensation. 

Going by the trend, the poll related spending is expected to reach spectacular heights once the dates are announced and the campaign kicks in.

Unlike in the past, TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK and Kamal Haasan’s MNM, who are also contesting in all Lok Sabha constituencies, were only expected to raise the overall expenses in these crucial Parliamentary polls.