Humans of DMK, AIADMK and BJP – Celebrations and Loyalty

Here’s how the cadres outside DMK, AIADMK and the BJP offices reacted to the numbers.

Human faces, and the stories behind them, outside the DMK and AIADMK office in Chennai.

(Photo Courtesy: Smitha TK)

The women dance, as early trends trickle in.

They would have fit in better outside the AIADMK office, if only Jayalalitha were alive. But the DMK has its own base of loyal feisty women from Chennai’s bronx.

Water boy for the day. Cadre for life.

To serve the party cadres, and whoever else visits the party office, is something ardent DMK loyalists vie for. A simple, menial task from an outsider’s point of view, rite of passage for the DMK cadre man.

The one constant face. 

Whether outside Kaveri Hospital, Stalin’s house, the DMK’s office or Karunanidhi’s memorial, this is the face you will have seen from two generations ago, to a few decades more.

Photographs. Cross generational.

Political paraphernalia, freebies, and trinkets are what keep the party cadre going, and provide a sense of belonging, in a simple, almost childish manner.

‘We will win! We already have!’

No celebration is complete without the women from North Chennai. Independent, politically aware, yet fiercely loyal to the DMK for generations.

Thenmozhi says ‘hi’.

Thenmozhi was christened by Kalaignar. It was he who named her ‘the one who speaks like honey.’ She is here to carry on the late former CM’s legacy.

Handlebar mustache smiles outside AIADMK office.

For the AIADMK, it’s win some, lose some. They get to keep their government, but lose badly at the assembly polls. The nuance is lost on this party worker. He’s just happy the camera’s trained on him.

Hairstyles tend to weird at the AIADMK office.

Tonsuring the head, tattooing the face and body, and now this. AIADMK cadres can go to great lengths to impress their Amma. Dead or alive, she’s there for them.

Irrelevant but happy.

The BJP, as a party continues to hold an almost negligible presence in Tamil Nadu. Yet, this time, TN recognises the colours and insignia. The state recognises the party that might just return to the centre, and rule over it.