Chennai: Dubbed the Chennai Super Queen for her stupendous performance in the Lok Sabha polls winning 37 of 39 seats from Tamil Nadu, AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa has emerged the clear heroine of the contest. While Narendra Modi had the advantage of being the chosen prime ministerial candidate by the national party BJP and a number of allies working for him at the ground level ahead of the elections, Ms Jayalalithaa chose to go it all alone. She sent her potential allies in the Left — CPM and CPI — packing because of their excessive seat expectations and warded off all overtures in a calculated gamble to seek votes for her party.
Many other factors, besides being the BJP’s PM-designate, worked for Narendra Modi at the national level. The disciplined workforce of the RSS, to which Mr Modi can trace his cultural and political roots, worked tirelessly on his behalf at the grassroots level even as massive and modern campaign machinery worked for him tirelessly on the social media and other platforms. On the contrary, Ms Jayalalithaa was virtually on her own, without even the comfort of orators of the kind that archrival DMK still boasts of. She was not only her party’s star campaigner but also virtually its sole campaigner. The media began to believe that she was making a mistake in taking on Mr Modi in the middle of her campaign when the tone and tenor of her rhetoric changed to include criticism of the Gujarat model.
Whatever impelled her to stake out on her own, Ms Jayalalithaa knew she was risking the consolidation of the Muslim vote in favour of the DMK and some caste-based for the PMK which was now in the BJP fold. She projected herself as the strong leader of her state and party who could deliver an inclusive style of governance in which none would be left out the minorities, the Dalits or the caste-based voter.
Ms Jayalalithaa may have fallen short of her stated ambition of playing a major national role after this election. But her vision was clear she wanted to be a national player in government formation but only because everyone believed the era of coalitions had not ended and no party would get a clear majority. Her statement of her ambition was also honest. She did not sound reluctant like some Congress leaders. In her reckoning, if she could get 40 out of 40 (39 Tamil Nadu seats plus Puducherry), she could hope to take a major share of power in any coalition at the Centre. In winning 37 of those 40 seats she had achieved her goal.
CAMPAIGN STYLE
Ms Jayalalithaa’s crystal clear diction, her choice of plain and honest language that everyone would understand, and the planks she chose to campaign on carried her own distinct touch. “Will you do this?” she would ask the audience at each of her rallies after exhorting them to reject the corrupt DMK and Congress parties. “We will,” the crowd would roar back. And the people kept their word.
INCLUSIVE AGENDA
She never gave the impression that as a personal friend of Mr Modi and once even ally for a while of an NDA government she had any kind of religious agenda.
She projected her government’s achievements that she said came against all odds.
PERFORMANCE
Long before the polls, her government had placed certain thoughtful freebies that would appeal most to women and reduce their drudgery in the kitchens — the mixie, the grinder, the fan, the stove, etc. For the children she had given uniforms, socks, school things, bicycles and for senior students laptops.
TAMIL VOTER SENTIMENT
Even her most ardent fans would not have expected Ms Jayalalithaa to score so big. Media and poll analysts had predicted a maximum of around 25 seats out of 39. But the fact that she ended up almost wiping out the opposition even in four-cornered contests only showed that the Tamil voter was not willing to forgive the DMK for high corruption. The public was also extremely critical of Karunanidhi and Dayanidhi Maran being fielded despite the pair having serious cases against them. Ms Jayalalithaa rubbed this point in at all her rallies. The Tamil voter also never forgave DMK’s former ally Congress for betrayal of the Tamil fishermen and the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Ms Jayalalithaa projected herself as a potent representative of Tamils in the capital provided the voter gave her a proper mandate and this is what happened.
DISUNITED OPPOSITION
DMK appeared splintered with the elder son Alagiri openly rebelling, cursing and predicting a zero score — in at least that he was spot on. The ambitious NDA refused to cobble up a united face even on Mr Modi’s second trip to the state close to the election whereas the AIADMK poll machinery ran smoothly with one person at the helm and steering it in the direction she wanted.
