AIADMK cadres are fanning out to flood victims and assuring them that relief would come to their doorsteps once elections were over. The halt in flood relief activities were purely due to model code of conduct, the cadres say to convince the voters.

AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa has drawn up a fool-proof plan to blunt opposition onslaught on December flood handling that left some people angry and disappointed. Which is being whipped up by the DMK and the DMDK into a potent campaign ahead of the elections that if the floods were man-made and caused by government’s inept handling of the heavy rain induced situation.

True, the DMK’s efforts to highlight the week-long travails of the people who lost their everything to the December 2015 floods in Chennai and neighboring districts of Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur, Cuddalore and the state of Puducherry did find some traction with people across the state. DMK treasurer and former deputy chief minister MK Stalin used his Nammakku Naame mass awareness programme to make it a potential poll issue.

Peoples anger then and even after rescue relief and rehabilitation of government was over does give the opposition a stick to beat the government and Jayalalithaa with.

Stalin, Karunanidhi do not leave a single opportunity to hit out against the government on the Chennai floods that left some 500 people dead and threw thousands into penury as they lost their everything, including a roof on their heads.

But luckily for Jayalalithaa, the floods are good three months behind and people have moved on. Still, the AIADMK has managed to convince the people that the election announcement and model code of conduct came in the way of implementing several flood relief programmes and direct transfer of Rs 5000 to each household.

“The money will be transferred to the beneficiaries once the elections are over by Jayalalithaa government,” said a senior AIADMK functionary who expressed the confidence that Amma was sure to come back as the chief minister, rewriting political history in the state.

AIADMK leaders and cadres are visiting the households of every victim in these four districts and promising them that flood relief would reach their homes once the elections were over. In fact, Jayalalithaa tried her best to try and fulfil most of the election promises she made during the 2011 general elections before the model code kicked in.

The AIADMK cadres have been entrusted with the task of identifying the specific problems people are facing and the reasons for their anger against the government, so that these inputs could be processed and remedial steps taken by the leadership. The main task of the house-to-house canvassers is to identify issues that were leading to anti-incumbency sentiments.

Already, Jayalalithaa has begun to crack the whip.

Many MLAs and ministers are unlikely to be fielded again, after a private detective agency went through each and every person’s background and performance as also allegations against them with a fine comb. The agency is understood to have given key inputs to the leadership, which will be crucial when deciding upon the nominations of the party candidates.

Jayalalithaa’s recent grilling of her three most senior ministers, including finance minister O Panneerselvam, is a step in that direction, so as to convey to the people that Jayalalithaa was also weeding out the people who earned the wrath of the voters, due to their alleged corruption or high-handedness.