Campaign turns into a soap opera in Tamil Nadu

With the Assembly election to be held in three weeks, it is time for major parties in Tamil Nadu, which has earned the sobriquet of being the ultimate freebie State, to come up with their own schemes of enticements for electors, totalling over 5.67 crore. 

Among the proposals on the table are an increase in the amount of monthly assistance for women from ₹1,000 to ₹2,000, and coupons worth ₹8,000 for every non-income tax-paying woman (homemaker) to buy consumer durables, both promised by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), whose electoral promise of providing ₹1,000 each to women was regarded as one of the factors responsible for the return of the Dravidian major to power after a 10-year gap. There are other schemes, such as Pudhumai Penn and Tamil Puthalvan, both aimed at encouraging government school students to pursue higher education, wherein the party has assured the electorate that the assistance amount would go up to ₹ 1,500.

The ruling party’s traditional adversary, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which began issuing its dose of poll guarantees in mid-January and concluded it in the last week of March by issuing a comprehensive poll manifesto, was the first to announce the enhanced assistance of ₹2,000 each to women. In an act of one-upmanship, the party stated that all women holding family cards would be covered. This means the number of beneficiaries would be increased by one crore from the current 1.23 crore. If this assurance is implemented, the annual outlay would shoot up to around ₹55,200 crore. The party has also promised free refrigerators for all rice cardholders, numbering about 2.22 crore. There are a host of other benefits, including free 1kg dal and 1 kilolitre of cooking oil, for beneficiaries of the public distribution system.

Not to be left behind, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has proposed hiking the assistance amount to ₹2,500 for women, gifting one sovereign of gold under the marriage assistance scheme and providing an unemployment allowance of ₹4,000 for graduates, which is similar to that of the AIADMK that offers ₹2,000. There is an “odd man out” in the form of the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), which is against freebies as a matter of principle.

The promises come at a time when the State’s revenue deficit for 2026-27 is estimated to be ₹48,700 crore, a figure worked out independently of such offers. Besides, Tamil Nadu has been, at the all-India level, assessed as one of those States whose expenditure on subsidies as a percentage of revenue receipts exceeds the national average.

It is an open secret that the promises of freebies alone do not guarantee victory to any party, as invariably every other party has been making such promises. Though some public policy experts argue that not every freebie scheme needs to be condemned, the State’s major parties are unwilling to disturb the status quo despite knowing that certain schemes do not yield the desired results or are being continued purposelessly.