By T.S.V. Hari, IANS
Madurai : Fifty-four-year-old ‘supreme star’ R. Sarat formally inaugurated the first conference of his political party near this temple town in Tamil Nadu Sunday in the company of his actor wife Radhika to the accompaniment of frenzied applause and traditional south Indian music.
The inauguration of the Akila India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (All India Egalitarian People’s Party) at Viraganur, eight kilometres from Madurai on the banks of river Vaigai, marks the start of the AISMK in right earnest.
Kumar released dozens of disoriented doves into the air on the occasion to denote his party’s policy of individual freedom. Kept in thrall for sometime, some of the birds could not fly and fell amongst the media shutterbugs ringing the small specially erected platform.
Some 300 policemen and 600 private guards regulated the 8,000-strong crowd.
Kumar drove in a tempo traveller with an open roof behind a procession of dozens of party faithful carrying germinated seedlings of local plants to underline the greenness of the outfit.
Clad in a spotless dhoti with a border of ochre-yellow – his party colours — and half-sleeved shirt, Kumar sported two vermilion marks on his forehead indicating his theist background.
This was despite the fact that the invitation card for the event had featured a picture of the late rationalist leader Periyar prominently.
A senior party leader said they were nonplussed at the show of pomp and splendour.
“The money spent on this event – in the excess of Rs.30 million – could have help us run the party for at least two years. While one has to admit that all meetings of political parties too do this kind of spending, I am unable to see any justification for this splurge. If we have to tread the beaten track, how are we different than the rest?” he asked on the condition of anonymity.
S. Pandiyan, a police head constable on duty, remarked: “We can heave a sigh of relief only when this is over tonight because there are so many terrorist threats floating around the state.”
Comparing the do organised by Vijay Kant in the same city two and a half years ago, Pandiyan estimated that the crowd expected to swell by afternoon Sunday may not be equal to a fourth of what was witnessed at the earlier meet.
“Any day, Vijay Kant is a bigger star. One cannot forget that Kumar came to be recognised as someone to be reckoned with only when he began playing second fiddle to Vijay Kant some 15 years ago,” a Madurai resident added.
Local journalists attending the meet here said that Kumar might also end up splitting the AIADMK vote like Vijay Kant.
“I suspect that local DMK bigwigs managed to send in some crowds to make this look like a workable proposition. But to think that all this will be converted into a discernible percentage of votes from the Nadars (a merchant community to which Kumar belongs) is wishful thinking at this stage,” one of them remarked.