Chennai: Sivaganga Congress candidate Karti Chidambaram is holding his marketing campaign narrative easy in his constituency Sivaganga as he runs for re-election within the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
From explaining the Centre’s reluctance to disburse funds to Tamil Nadu and worth rise to “North Indian Hindutva”, the MP is breaking points down for the voters, merely and successfully, dotting his marketing campaign speeches with examples that buttress his pitch.
The principle weapon in Chidambaram’s armour towards the BJP is worth rise. At his road marketing campaign in Arimalam in Sivaganga Sunday, he attacked the central authorities for growing costs of important commodities, placing forth comparative costs.
“Soaps sold at Rs 8 are now Rs 20. Shampoo priced at Rs 1 is Rs 5. Rs 200 slippers are Rs 350. School bags sold at Rs 300 are Rs 650. Prices of all commodities have gone up. To reduce all these prices, there should be a change in the government at the Centre,” he instructed the general public gathered.
He stored his reasoning easy to drive dwelling his level. He first requested everybody in the event that they watched tv within the night and which sequence, if sure. As soon as the gang replied, he spoke concerning the rise within the worth of cable connection.
“When the Congress party was in power, cable TV connection was just Rs 55. Now, it is Rs 250. Why did it become Rs 250? Do you know what Modi did? You cannot buy just the one channel that you want to watch. Modi makes you buy at least 25 channels, including that one,” he mentioned.
“An ordinary household watches only four to five channels. You are not watching the others. But, to purchase those four or five channels, you are forced to buy 25 to 30 channels. That’s why the charge is Rs 250,” he added.
To elucidate Tamil Nadu’s fixed grouse towards the Centre for not releasing funds for the state – the ruling DMK has even moved the Supreme Court docket for this – Chidambaram broke his reasoning all the way down to rupees and paisas.
He instructed his viewers that taxpayers in northern states like Uttar Pradesh get extra worth for his or her cash than these within the south. To underscore his level that fund disbursal is skewed in favour of BJP-ruled states, principally within the north and central India, the MP mentioned the notion that solely the wealthy pay taxes was flawed.
“Everybody is paying tax. Even if you buy a bar of soap, a comb, camphor or a mirror, you pay tax. There is no product without tax. But, if we pay Rs 1 as tax in Tamil Nadu, we get back only 29 paise. But, in north India, in a Hindi speaking state like Uttar Pradesh, they pay Rs 1 as tax and get back Rs 2.73. What does it mean?” he requested the gang whereas talking in Sivaganga Sunday.
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The group waited for him to reply and, after a dramatic pause, Chidambaram mentioned, “You all work, you toil, you earn, you buy a product, pay tax on it and from that money we get only 29 paise and north India gets an average 71 paise. Should our money come to us or should it go to north India?”
He then made his political pitch, urging the voters to vote for the Opposition and alter the federal government on the Centre.
In Tamil Nadu, allies Congress and the ruling DMK have gone for a similar seat-sharing method as in 2019, with the nationwide get together getting 9 of the state’s 39 seats and the lone seat in Puducherry.
The Congress has nearly-continuously been in energy in Sivaganga since 1980, besides between 2014 and 2019, when the allies had damaged up, facilitating a win for the AIADMK.
Karti’s father and former Union minister P. Chidambaram has additionally held this constituency for a number of phrases.
‘North’s vegetarian Hindutva’
Chidambaram, who gained Sivaganga in 2019, touched upon casteism, stating that the BJP would attempt to impose “vegetarian Hindutva” on the south.
He recalled how former AIADMK chief minister J. Jayalalithaa — a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin who supported the BJP — had banned the sacrifice of goats and roosters in temples.
“If BJP comes to power for a third term, they will ban it too. Their Hindutva is upper class, north Indian, Sanskrit vegetarian Hindutva. They are not non-veg eaters like us. They will not accept our habits and culture,” he mentioned.
The incumbent MP, who’s going through the AIADMK’s Xavierdas and BJP’s D. Devanathan Yadav, additionally pitched himself as a typical consultant for all of the individuals in his constituency, rebuking others for practising caste and communal politics.
“I come with political identity, they come with caste identity. I will be your common representative,” he mentioned.
Presenting the Congress’s “hand” image because the panacea to all such “issues”, he reminded the gang about ally DMK’s concern for ladies and youngsters. He spoke concerning the Tamil Nadu authorities’s Rs 1,000 monetary assist for ladies, free bus service for them, and morning breakfast scheme for college kids. He added, “To continue all this, the symbol you must choose is the ‘hand’”.
By the way, Chidambaram is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case linked to alleged issuance of visas to some Chinese language nationals in 2011.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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