Reporter's diary: Bypoll duty calls! Fort St George is empty

CHENNAI: The heat of the high-voltage Erode East bypoll campaign of the Dravidian parties has not spared Fort St George. The usually ‘crowded’ Fort, the ultimate seat of power in the State, is sporting an ‘empty’ look of late owing to the ‘migration’ of the who’s who of Tamil Nadu politics to Erode.

The otherwise jam-packed alleys of the Fort, bustling with beacon-light-holding SUVs of ministers and their obedient lackeys, who make thoroughfare on the campus an entitlement of their own, was ‘free’ for the less-powerful and apolitical ordinary citizens ever since the poll campaign lured the high and mighty to the western town.

Even the busy food joints, where it is hard to find an empty seat on a weekday, were complaining of poor business since last week after the ‘karai veshtis’ shifted their base to Erode.

To make matters worse, the two-day visit of Chief Minister MK Stalin to Salem for field inspection has literally reduced the secretariat campus to an off-season English football pitch. Barring the usual citizens turning up to redress their grievances and the infinitesimal employees of the government machinery, the Fort has ‘lost’ its political colour for a while now.

The absence of the heads of key departments, who responded to the call of duty by accompanying the CM for the inspection, has contributed to the low footfall at the Secretariat. Thankfully, the abstention was a blessing in disguise for journalists awaiting the appointment of some bureaucrats.