COIMBATORE: Clearly, the average voter's expectations soar with every election as much as the skyrocketing prices of essentials. And a vote for change, they believe, would bring them more benefits. But was it a mere toss between a mixer and a grinder that swung the vote? Ahead of the polls, DMK and AIADMK had unleashed a war of populism. And Verdict 2011, in a way, turned out to be a battle of freebies versus more freebies.
The DMK regime, in the last five years, distributed one kg rice for one rupee and gas stoves besides TV sets to all households. In the march towards a welfare state, Karunanidhi even introduced free medical insurance for the poor — TN is only the second state in the country to do so — as well as a housing scheme for the underprivilged was a populist overdrive that had changed rural voting patterns in favour of the DMK in the last few years. It was expected to blunt the effect of the 2G scandal on the ruling party during the assembly polls too. DMK chief M Karunanidhi even harped on the "overwhelming sense of gratitude" of rural Tamil Nadu. "We have delivered not just what we promised before the 2006 election, but much more. And the people will back us," was M K Stalin's assessment.
The DMK regime, in the last five years, distributed one kg rice for one rupee and gas stoves besides TV sets to all households. In the march towards a welfare state, Karunanidhi even introduced free medical insurance for the poor — TN is only the second state in the country to do so — as well as a housing scheme for the underprivilged was a populist overdrive that had changed rural voting patterns in favour of the DMK in the last few years. It was expected to blunt the effect of the 2G scandal on the ruling party during the assembly polls too. DMK chief M Karunanidhi even harped on the "overwhelming sense of gratitude" of rural Tamil Nadu. "We have delivered not just what we promised before the 2006 election, but much more. And the people will back us," was M K Stalin's assessment.
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