Generally it is the AIADMK that puts up banners praising their Supremo J. Jayalalitha all over the city. They use alliterative phrases that sound good even though they might not mean any thing, like காவிரித் தாய் (Mother Cauvery), தங்கத் தாரகை (Golden Star?), et al. They even got into problems during her earlier regime in 1991-96 for portraying her as Mary.

DMK was more content with talking, after all they were the inventors of the rhetorical stuff that defines Tamilnadu Politics. But after taking oath as CM this time, Mr. Karunanidhi too has lot of banners put up in favor of him Initially I thought it was to thank the voters for voting him back to power. But the banners are being continuously updated with new phrases every now and then, making it interesting to read when you are waiting at the traffic signal.

The ones that caught my eye were மூப்பறியா முத்தொள்ளாயிரமே (ageless muth thollayiram (tamil literary book)), அன்று செய்வதைச் சொன்னார், இன்று சொன்னதைச் செய்கிறார் (then he told what he will do, now he does what he told), and one portraying him as having removed the thorn from Periyar’s heart (apparently Thanthai Periyaar had said that Brahmins being priests and the original dravidians standing docile in front of them was piercing his heart like a thorn, and Karunanidhi by declaring that any one can become a priest has removed the thorn).

The banners are being updated like once a month. I think this is a shift in propaganda strategy of the DMK. They fared badly in the city during elections, with their leaders like Anbalagan and Stalin scrapping through (by 400 and 2000 votes respectively). DMK won just 7 out of 14 seats, that too by thin margins. It is a precipitous fall for the party which once considered Chennai as its fort. Hence this strategy of continuous bombardment of messages and images to inform people of what they are doing.

It does make interesting reading, while you are waiting in the hot sun in the traffic signal.