Worldwide politicians play perverse games every day by reinventing old ones. Tamil Nadu is no exemption and in the prevailing volatile political environment, in which the State is under coalition rule for the first time since 1952, the good old sport called poaching, for which the known and popular panacea has been sequestering possible sellouts, is being re-enacted by adopting a new style. Now what an elected representative, say an MLA, does first – yes the first step to realize the dream – is to resign the post if they want to move over to another party, where the grass looks green for them. As happened last week with four MLAs of the AIADMK. First three of the MLAs resigned, followed by another and a rumour that an army of MLAs were waiting in line. Whether more AIAMK MLAs will resign the post and lose the status that they have just acquired will be known in the days to come.
What we already know is that the MLAs want to join the ruling party because they think that it would be a lucrative proposition. A batch of three, after tendering their resignations with the Speaker in the ground floor of the building in Fort St George, rushed to the first floor to call on a Minister at his chamber. The MLAs do not see a big future for them in the AIADMK and hence moving to, as we said, greener pastures. What exactly the ruling party would offer them in appreciation of the defection is not clear. Whether they are with the AIADMK or the TVK, functioning as MLAs, they would draw the same salaries, the perquisites and public respect. If someone who lost the election or someone who was denied ticket to contest the election defects to another party, it makes sense if they can expect better prospects in that party when elections come next.
Giving up an MLA post and joining another party as an ordinary member is not an attractive proposition for a politician. Still if they have done that, it is because they hope for the best, an optimism that needs to be appreciated in these times of uncertainties. Those former MLAs have been promised by the new party a nomination to the same MLA seat that they threw out when the by-elections were held. Yes they will be held soon as the seats have already been declared as vacant. So far so good. But the question is will the people who will have to vote prefer the same person again. As everyone knows, conducting a bye election is a definite strain on the exchequer. So will not the voters be peeved that they have been forced to walk to the polling booth once again in six months, particularly in the broiling heat of the summer, just because the candidate they chose in the general elections wants something more than the MLA job.
What is the guarantee the former MLAs would be elected again unless they had been earlier voted in because of personal popularity among the electorate in the constituency. Had they endeared themselves so much with the people in the constituency that the voters’ fingers would reach out to the button across their name in the voting machine? Perhaps they are not following modern political trends that exemplify the loyalty typical of voters– even a Chief Minister who visited his voters regularly and launched a plethora of welfare schemes for the constituency could get defeated. Whatever, it was very clear that the candidates were taking a fantastic risk when they threw up the post with the hope of winning it again from the same constituency from another political party. What if they had got elected earlier because of their party affiliation?
If they did not take all these possible obstacles into account when they just like that threw up the post, were they promised proper compensation from the party that has welcomed them – or rather instigated them to defect – with open arms. Or were they taken in by the ideology, principles and policies of the party they wished to join? Or was the attraction confined to the ‘ruling’ status of the new party. If that was so, what do the former MLAs, aspiring to become MLAs again, expect to do to their constituencies by being part of the ruling party? Whatever it is, the lure has been irresistible to the MLAs, who apparently have no loyalty to the party that had nominated them, no ideological leanings whatsoever, and no respect for the people’s mandate. As everyone knows their resignations were not driven by any personal principles but only by the anti-defection law that came into force in 1985.
But it is intriguing that the former MLAs believe that voters also think and dream like them. Voters too would like to go for an MLA belonging to the ruling party, as much as the MLAs want to be part of the ruling party, and that they are not guided by other things like party affiliations, ideologies and traditions when they select a candidate, the former MLAs believe. That perception could be wrong and also boomerang on them. Yet when they took the calculated risk, we know the times have changed and that people’s views on politics have also changed, which explains the changed style in poaching to suit the emerging contours of politics.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
