TN: Political parties dig up national issues at local body polls

With just two more days to go for the urban local body elections in Tamil Nadu, political parties took to campaigning at full pace only from Sunday (February 13). Though it is a generally accepted norm among political parties that the campaigning will be effective during the last week before the election date, this time there is a major visible change in the campaigning pattern.

After a decade, the Tamil Nadu urban local body elections will be held in a single phase on February 19.

Following chief minister MK Stalin’s extension of support to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee against Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, it has become quite apparent that the local body elections in Tamil Nadu this time will focus on issues of national importance.

While campaigning in Salem on Sunday (February 13), AIADMK co-coordinator and former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said that West Bengal-like situation may arise in the state too, referring to conflicts between Mamata Banerjee and Governor Dhankhar. “If there is a misrule in Tamil Nadu, a Bengal-like situation may arise here as well,” he warned.

No focus on local issues

It is clear that the AIADMK is desperately trying to win people’s mandate, following their loss in the state assembly elections last year. However, instead of focusing on issues related to the municipal corporations, municipalities and town panchayats, the AIADMK’s campaigning is mostly focused on national level issues like NEET and increasing petrol prices, among others.

On its part, the DMK has advised its cadres and contestants to take the achievements of its government to masses. Hence, their campaigns too are centered around national level issues like state autonomy. They are not even ready to question the AIADMK’s work at corporation or ward level.

When looking at the style of campaigning, Stalin has been found to be tech-savvy with the party’s IT wing consistently churning out videos of the government’s achievements in the last eight months. The BJP, an ally of the AIADMK, which decided to contest the elections alone this time, is staging some drama in tea stalls and hotels.

Barring PMK and MNM, none of the major political parties has any tangible local issue to talk about this time.

‘Polarisation continues from rural local body polls’

But why are parties talking about national issues at local body polls? Is it deliberate? Are they trying to use local bodies for polarising masses?

According to political analyst Tharasu Shyam, the use of national issues to polarise people during local body elections started way back in 2019. “The DMK then used anti-CAA protests and asked its followers to draw kolam (rangolis) in front of their houses as a mark of opposition to CAA. The BJP tried to capitalise on it by saying it compelled the DMK to draw the kolams. The saffron party tried to give it a religious colour because kolam is considered a practice of Hindus. The DMK countered the claim by saying that the “kolam is a porekolam i.e. A call for war, against your government’s alankolam, which literally means disorientation of the government”. So polarisation during local polls has been in trend since,” Shyam said.

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The analyst said the AIADMK’s reference to the West Bengal issue in the urban local body poll campaign in Tamil Nadu should be seen as an extension of that effort. “On one hand, I am glad to know that political parties have taken up national level issues at the village level. But on the other hand, it needs to be noted that people are not going to be drawn by such campaigning. Since the candidates are personally known to voters at ward levels, the selection would be done solely on the basis of the candidate’s backgrounds,” Shyam said. He further detailed how the changes brought in local bodies gave political parties a say in elections where they were once considered irrelevant.

“In rural local body elections, the lowest units are panchayat presidents and panchayat ward members. Earlier, these elections were not conducted based on political affiliations. Now, in the urban local body polls, the lowest unit election in which political parties have a say is the town panchayat. This is because of the three-tier system,” said Shyam.

The analyst said that many years ago it used to be a two-tier system — panchayat union and municipality, and hence, there was no party interference at all. “Now, rural and urban local bodies follow a three-tier system, which gives an opportunity for political parties to interfere. In 1996, we opposed the idea of holding local body election on the basis of political affiliations, but the demand has fallen on deaf ears,” he added.

‘To woo urban voters, parties take on national issues’

“National issues seem to have a wider impact when political parties touch upon them,” said P Ramajayam, a noted psephologist, who said that campaigning on local issues will not help political parties strengthen themselves.

“If the AIADMK campaigns on local issues, it may backfire for them because they have been in power for the last decade and voters may ask a lot of uncomfortable questions. It is only natural for the BJP to talk of national issues as it is a national party. So, now that they do not have anything to focus on, they target the DMK solely on NEET, the controversial national level medical entrance examination. In turn, the DMK spends most of its time in countering their allegations,” Ramajayam said.

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It is because the local body elections are being conducted separately for rural and urban areas that political parties were pushed to talk about national issues.

“If there had been a combined election, the local issues would have got more focus. But now that elections are being held separately, and every aspirant wants to woo the urban voters, who it seems think beyond the local issues, the parties are campaigning around national issues. They believe that speaking about such issues will make the campaigning more lively,” Ramajayam said.

‘People lack awareness on local body governance’ 

Prof G Palanithurai, an authority on Panchayat Raj system, said that the three-tier local bodies were created not to lead but to empower people and that’s why it is called ‘participative government’. “Barring Communist candidates, nobody else understands local body governance. Other parties are unable to set the agendas for local bodies. Most of them think that they can “earn” well once they get elected. In order to project themselves as deserving candidates, these party candidates campaign around issues like NEET. But if voters are aware of the Panchayat Raj Act, they would start questioning candidates. Unfortunately, that awareness is lacking here,” he said.

Prof Palanithurai, however, pointed out that political parties can polarise voters in rural local body elections on the basis of caste and religion, but not in the urban local body polls.