TIRUCHY: Unlike previous elections, both the AIADMK and DMK have laid more emphasis on booth-level committees in the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections. Both parties have instructed their functionaries to increase the strength of booth committees. Every polling booth, on an average, will have about 1,000 voters. Booth committees have to focus on those 1,000 voters alone. Assembly constituencies have an average of 250 polling booths each.
In the current political scene, only AIADMK and DMK have booth committees for all polling booths in the State. No other political party has committees for all booths - not even for half of the total booths. Such committees are considered vital in making parties perform better in elections and retain their vote banks irrespective of victory or defeat. In an unprecedented step, AIADMK has instructed its cadre to form booth committees with at least 70 members.
An AIADMK functionary said, “Earlier, we had 18 members in a committee. In 2016 Assembly elections, we added 25 youngsters (from Ilaingar and Ilampengal Pasarai). This election, we have been told to add 30 women. So a booth committee will have more than 70 members.” Every member of an AIADMK booth committee is tasked with managing a minimum of 10 voters of a particular booth. The committee member has to meet those 10 voters, canvass for votes and ensure that they come and cast their votes on election day. As far as DMK is concerned, it has 13 members in a booth committee.
Each member has to look after 100 votes. The DMK’s booth committee consists of one organizer, two deputy organisers (one woman) and 10 members including 5 women. A DMK organizer said: “We do not require more members to the committee like the AIADMK. We can do better with just 13 members. If needed, members of our booth committee can identify and enrol five persons to assist them in managing the 100 votes allotted to them. This way, we can cover 1,000 votes in our booth.”
During the special camp for electoral roll revisions, these booth committee members scrutinize the voter list of their booth and make new additions and deletions by providing proof. On election day, heads of the booth committees will become booth-level agents for their party candidates. They will get ID cards from the Election Commission to sit inside polling booths and ensure that voters are genuine. Those agents in a polling booth, through their experience and familiarity, have an idea as to which votes (among the 1,000 voters of a booth) are for AIADMK, DMK, and other parties.
Only a few hundred votes in a booth are usually unpredictable. Almost all the booth-level agents of both the AIADMK and DMK have the experience of working in at least four Assembly elections. Members are chosen by giving representations to the castes and communities that live in a particular area or village. If the voters of a particular polling booth belong to a Scheduled Caste, all the booth committee members of the two parties will be from the caste alone. For this election, the two parties are keen on including more women to committees.
Parties have also added at least one member from the IT wing. The duty of the IT wing member is to form WhatsApp groups by collecting mobile numbers of the voters within their booth and spreading information about their party. After coalitions are formed, booth committees will also include a few members, if available, from the allied parties. The work of the booth committee members are not always restricted to election or campaign works.
These members are always socially active and help people in various ways. A villager can approach these members for school admissions for their children, job recommendations, solving civic issues and so on. These members have to maintain rapport with the voters of their booth all through their lifetime. Taking part in weddings and deaths are part of their routine. In short, they are part of the lives of the 1,000 voters under them.
Both the AIADMK and DMK cadre told TNIE that apart from them, no other political party, including Makkal Needhi Maiam and Naam Tamizhar Katchi, have so many booth committees. “They have not even tried to form booth committees because they cannot identify supporters in every booth of the State,” they added.