Freebies and sops dished out by DMK could not help

CHENNAI: The freebies and sops dished out by the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu could not help the party as the opposition AIADMK made similar promises, political analysts said on Friday. Voters were also more concerned about bread and butter issues such as price rise and erratic electricity supply. “Despite the strong negative points against the ruling party, Jayalalithaa had to offer the freebie to counter the goodies offer by DMK, which played a nullifying role,” political commentator Cho Ramaswamy said. In 2006, the AIADMK did not promise any sops of its own in the run-up the 2006 assembly elections which it lost to the DMK. The latter promised free colour television, free gas connection and rice at Re one per kg.

This time around AIADMK despite having strong factors like 2G scam and general anti incumbency in the state in its favour, announced freebies of its own. For example , when the DMK had promised 35 kg of free rice every month for below-poverty line families, AIADMK promised 20 kg of free rice for all ration-card holders. Political commentator Gnani Sankaran also agreed with Cho and said it is purely the corruption factor which has turned the tide in favour of Jayalalithaa. “When it comes to elections voters look for larger issues like price rise and corruption. Freebies do not play an important factor,” C Lakshmanan, assistant professor Madras Institute of Development Studies said.