If infighting is democracy, then there cannot be a more democratic party than the Congress in Tamilnadu. The party has never failed to live up to its reputation of being faction ridden and elections are only one another opportunity to drive home the point.

While the Congress leadership took its own fancy time in deciding the candidates (it is rumoured that Karunanidhi had an upper hand in finalizing the candidates), the much-delayed list is not a please-all one. The kind of opposition some Congress candidates are facing is unprecedented. A woman cadre tried self-immolation protesting the candidature of Charubala Thondaman in Tiruchi. Charubala is already a Mayor and the local party leaders are aghast that other workers are denied opportunities. Virudhunagar’s candidate Sundara Vadivel has faced stiff opposition for being an ‘outsider.’ Even the Tamilnadu Congress Committee president K V Thangabalu has not been spared. Sources say Thangabalu could retain theparliamentary constituency only after the DMK chief intervened and put in a word in favour of him. But the Congress leader could not curry favour with his own party men in. Theparty cadres are up in arms demanding the removal of Thangabalu as the candidate for the constituency. Whether the noise will reach the high command is a moot question!

It is perhaps time for the political parties to move over. Atleast two candidates in Tamilnadu – surprisingly low profile – have their own manifestoes exclusively for their own constituencies.

The manifesto of K Pandiarajan – the chairman of Mafoi who is contesting from Virudhunagar as the DMDK candidate – is no surprise. His business acumen and foresightedness comes in handy while wooing the voters. He has promised the moon really – from employment opportunities for every family, education, health, women empowerment and almost everything under the sun.

But the DMK candidate of the neighbouring Ramanathapuram district J K Ritheesh is all set to tickle the electorate’s fancy. The politician who has couple of films to his credit is said to be extremely wealthy – a factor which played a key role in clinching the coveted Ramanathapuram seat sought by many DMK people.

The Tamils had a taste of things to come when Ritheesh presented himself in the DMK front’s campaign launch where candidates were introduced on the evening of April 18. He came in a shocking pink shirt and sporting sun glasses. He has apparently sought permission to bring out his own ‘constituency manifesto’ from the DMK headquarters. The best is perhaps this: Ritheesh has apparently promised Rs 25,000 to every family in the constituency, besides gifting them gold during weddings.

Talk about the unassailable charm of populist promises.

The Tough and mercurial J Jayalalitha can be her own sweet self if she chooses to. On March 16, the day when the AIADMK and allies officially launched the campaign and introduced the candidates, Jayalalitha had hosted a dinner for alliance party leaders in Chennai.

To the amazement of her alliance partners, she was seen playing the role of host to perfection. Sources say she had also donned the role of a chef explaining to leaders about the nutritional value of food prepared for the dinner.

“She was so unassuming, contrary to all we have heard about her” gushed an alliance party leader I had casually met for a chat the next day. What he added was a case in point. “She would never be defeated if she was so always.” Well, we know why she would not be.

He won hearts for nothing. Yet Karthik the yesteryear heartthrob of Tamil cinema who set the world on fire by his mesmerizing performance in Mani Ratnam’sMouna Raagamhas been reduced to a comedian in Tamil polity. His Naadalum Makkal Katchi (roughly translated, party of people who would rule the country) is by itself a reason for the comic relief in an otherwise tough Tamil politics.Karthik only comes up with more. Recently, he rued the fact that political parties in Tamilnadu were asking him to ‘extend support but not willing to part with seats.’ “How can we extend support without getting a seat in return?” he had asked rather seriously. For record, he was with Forward Bloc before splitting the movement and starting a party of his own. His erratic ways had made sure that the party had split over and over again. He perhaps had a taker in the BJP which is left in a lurch in the State. In alliance with the BJP, the party would contest seven seats in Tamilnadu. “The cadres can vote as they wish in constituencies we do not contest” he has said.

But the icing on the cake was this. He refused to attend a public meeting got up by his own political party because when he stepped down from his car some mischievous cadre had flicked his cap away and disappeared. Karthik insisted that making a public appearance without his cap ‘would not do well to his image’ (like MGR, again?) and the meeting was delayed for want of a cap.

Personally, I hate to see him go down like this. He was the man who made many young women, including me, swirl. I always believed he was an evergreen hero. When I grew up, I realised‘evergreen’ was a subjective term.

She always believes in luck, so it is no wonder that AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha asked the party aspirants for Lok Sabha polls to submit a copy of their horoscopes while filing their applications with the party headquarters. So there were over 3000 horoscopes that flooded the headquarters. Amma had also appointed a group of astrologers to go through the horoscopes and decide the victory prospects. Sources in the party say Amma now has the list of ‘winnable’ candidates given to her by the astrologers.

Nevertheless, she went ahead and conducted interviews for the aspirants.