TIRUCHY: Periyakadai Veethi near Rockfort is well known for selling a sundry of eye-catching items, from textile to trinkets. With the arrival of urban local body elections, the display has turned more colourful. Several textile shops are seen stocking up and displaying towels and scarves with various colours of political parties.
Nowhere in the country are towels more intertwined with politics than in Tamil Nadu. Presenting a towel is seen as a gesture of showing respect to others, and Dravidian party leaders and functionaries have never held back the practice of presenting towels to one another.
The practice, which has been around for over seven decades in the State, was introduced and popularised by former chief minister CN Annadurai. It was in an attempt to fight the discriminatory practice of not allowing marginalised people to sport a towel on their shoulders.
While the sale of towels normally picks up ahead of parliamentary and Assembly elections, it is nothing when compared to the figures during local body polls. Each candidate starts focussing on people who live in their particular ward and campaigning gets more personal. The candidates, more often than not, meet almost all voters or families personally, and present them with towels of their party colours. Candidates and functionaries also sport towels with party borders while campaigning.
Murugesan, a textile shop owner on Periyakadai Veethi, said, “We buy towels in bulk from Salem and Erode mostly. We have towels for all parties. Those with borders of the DMK and the AIADMK sell the most.” Candidates of the Dravidian majors are contesting in most of the wards in urban local bodies, and this reflects in stocking and selling of party towels.
Sheik, another shop owner, “Party functionaries buy towels in bulk, starting from 100 to 1,000 pieces a day. They come from all over the district and also neighbouring districts to buy the towels. We have towels in a wide price range, between ` 20 and `70, based on quality. We hope all stocks get sold before the poll. Or else, we would have to move them to godown, and wait for the next election.”
K Kalaiselvan, president, Erode Cloth Merchants’ Association, said, “The increase is considerable as party functionaries all over Tamil Nadu are placing orders. We always had orders. It is just that it increases ahead of elections, especially during local body polls, it is around 10 times.”