DMK leader MK Stalin has been issuing statements against the Tamil Nadu government on a daily basis on various issues of – OBC reservation, coronavirus, draft EIA notification 2020, etc. At the same time, Prashant Kishor’s IPAC team which has been deployed to device the election strategy for DMK continues to give assignments to the party in the run-up to the elections.
At the beginning of the pandemic, when the entire nation was under complete lockdown asking people to stay indoors and maintain social distancing, the IPAC team came out with a propaganda initiative called “Ondrinaivom Vaa” (Come, Let’s Unite).
Under this initiative, the public would send petitions through a missed call which would then be forwarded to the respective district secretaries of the DMK to provide relief assistance. This had burnt holes in cadres’ pockets with petrified DMK men lamenting about the party not providing funds and that they had to shell out their own money.
Next, IPAC team selected more than twenty major cities across Tamil Nadu and devised a program to feed the poor living in those cities on a daily basis. In this project, the DMK party did not directly involve themselves but roped in NGOs working in these cities. These NGOs were then put in touch with DMK IT Wing members.
Now, IPAC has asked for a list of 90 people in each ward in all the major cities of Tamil Nadu. The DMK secretaries have been instructed to collect the details including WhatsApp number of social activists, those running NGOs, and other DMK sympathizer in their area considered as ‘potential influencers’. Earlier The Commune had reported that how the IPAC was recruiting gullible college students as interns to identify influencers to create a pro-DMK narrative.
In addition to collecting the details of these ‘potential influencers’, the IPAC team has sent details of small and big hospitals in cities and has asked the DMK office bearers to collect the details including WhatsApp number of the doctors working in these hospitals. This will be extended to municipalities and panchayat unions as well. It is being said that they are planning to collect information more from municipalities and less from panchayat unions compared to municipal corporations.
While Prashant Kishor’s IPAC team for the DMK has been quietly gearing up for the polls, the team led by Sunil, who previously oversaw the DMK’s IT wing, is now touring district – wise to prepare the ground for the AIADMK. It is being said that with the AIADMK looking forward to retain power for another term, Sunil’s team has been conducting a survey asking people about what schemes would they like to be implemented in their area. For the AIADMK, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (fondly called as EPS) has been emerging as the face to bank on for the 2021 elections. Both the party and the leader has consolidated itself and has emerged stronger under CM Palaniswami. His tenure has seen the delta zone being declared as protected zone, bringing the Cauvery dispute to a conclusion and also steady flow of investments into the state. These have been instrumental for the party to win the Assembly by-elections and put a tough fight against the DMK in the local body elections. It would do well for the party to bank on the EPS-OPS ‘double barrel gun’ with EPS as the CM face for the next polls.