Booth-level foot soldiers spearhead electioneering

ERODE: It was after a long struggle that P Suresh Kumar, an associate of a DMK booth committee worker from Annai Sathya Nagar in Erode East assembly constituency, found the contact number of a resident from that locality. The resident had shifted two years ago.
Suresh immediately called him, confirmed his identity and convinced him to visit Erode on February 27 to cast his vote.“I did not want to take any chances. So, I requested the ward councillor to speak to the resident through video call and got his assurance that he would visit Erode on polling day,” Suresh says with pride.
Suresh is one among scores of DMK booth level foot soldiers working overtime alongside the high-pitched campaigns of ministerial heavyweights for the party’s success in the bypoll.
“Not just Coimbatore. We have identified voters who have shifted to Tirupur, Trichy, Chennai and some even to Kerala. We are regularly speaking to them and their family members to come on February 27 to vote for us” says another booth committee member.
State municipal administration minister K N Nehru held a meeting with DMK booth workers on Monday and told them that though ministers would go around wards seeking votes, the role of booth workers gains significance now.
There are 238 booths in Erode East. The DMK has set up booth committees with 10 members for each booth. Each member has been given the responsibility of canvassing 50 voters. “The booth committee member, in turn, can rope in 10 deputies, so that each deputy would be in charge of 10 voters,” Nehru told the booth committee members. These members have been instructed to meet and interact with the 10 voters every day.
While each DMK minister has been assigned three to five wards, the ministers have further demarcated the areas and have deployed MLAs, district secretaries, town secretaries and other functionaries for each locality. The ministers have brought in scores of men from their respective districts. The booth committee members will report to these men, who in turn will update the ministers every night.
Besides the job of bringing voters on the polling day, the booth committee members have also been tasked with bringing people for campaign meetings.
The AIADMK too has a detailed dossier – total voters, traditional AIADMK voters, those inclined to vote for the party this time and voters from opposite camp. AIADMK’s Erode East election in charge K A Sengottaiyan has asked the party foot soldiers to do targeted campaigns.