Tamil Nadu and Kerala: Two states with few similarities head to polls

Coimbatore/Thiruvananthapuram: Tamil Nadu and Kerala, India’s southernmost states that go to the assembly polls on May 16 have a few things in common. But take those away and the ground realities are as far removed as the Bay of Bengal, which borders Tamil Nadu, is from the Arabian Sea, on whose shores lies Kerala.

The commonalities are indeed striking: Over three decades, two parties have straddled Tamil Nadu politics, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by chief minister Jayaram Jayalalitha, and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by veteran Muthuvel Karunanidhi. Smaller parties have hardly mattered.

In Kerala, over the same three decades, electoral politics has been monopolised by the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the Communist Party of India Marxist-led Left Democratic Front. As in Tamil Nadu, smaller parties have only had the role of playing second fiddle within the two fronts.

Another similarity is that since the 1980s, there has always been anti-incumbency playing out in both states, which has ensured that the two leading parties or fronts come and go in a revolving-door arrangement.

A third parallel this time is that in both states there is a recognisable third front. In Tamil Nadu, it is the People’s Welfare Front, comprising parties like those of Captain Vijayakanth’s DMDK and former federal minister Anbumani Ramadoss’s PMK.

In Kerala, the third front is the National Democratic Alliance, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Bharatiya Dharma Jana Seva party of Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam leader Vellapally Natesan, and some other parties.

And an interesting fourth commonality is that this time the ruling party or front is not expected to take victory for granted. In both states, the tradition has been that the ruling coalition would come crashing down every five years. In Tamil Nadu that was repeated even in 2011, though in Kerala, the UDF won only by a whisker in 2011.

In 2016, though, both the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the LDF in Kerala cannot expect victory on a platter, which is a major difference from past elections.

Everything else about the politics in these states are as incomparable as apples and oranges, from the way the campaign is conducted, to the manner in which politicians interact with people.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is seen to be as aloof from voters as Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy is close to voters in his state. “Tamil Nadu cannot have a chief minister who stays within four walls”, commented Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi during a campaign speech.

What separates the two states even more are the cash handouts to woo voters in Tamil Nadu, which are practically absent in Kerala. The Election Commission has been keeping a close eye on parties in Tamil Nadu attempting to bribe voters with cash, but reports indicate that parties have devised ingenuous ways to woo voters.

One of these is to give coupons to potential voters, which the latter can then exchange for getting a basket of goodies including petrol at select pumps, mobile phone recharges or even milk from some outlets. These are practices almost unheard of in Kerala, where parties still attempt to collect some campaign money from their constituencies.

The freebie culture is another aspect that thrives in Tamil Nadu and is nearly non-existent in Kerala. Over the years Tamil Nadu voters have received freebies from bicycles and colour television sets to sewing machines and laptops.

This year, there are more such offers for Tamil Nadu voters, from free mobile phones for ration card holders to farm loan write offs, and a nine-month maternity leave and Rs18,000 in maternity allowance.

PMK’s Ramadoss has described the freebie culture as “deplorable”, but leading parties in Tamil Nadu do not want to risk taking the freebies away.

In contrast, Kerala voters appear to be content with the regular diet of political statements from the UDF and the LDF, and more recently from the BJP.

Both states go to the polls on May 16, and will know the verdicts on May 19.