Chennai: With a 4.5 per cent share of votes in the last elections held in the state, the Vanniyar community's political emissary the Pattali Makkal Katchi or PMK party is testing the poll waters on its own for the first time.
And just like the two big parties in the state it's Chief Ministerial candidate Dr Anbumani Ramadoss is promising dry days ahead in a state where state-run liquor shops generate an annual revenue of Rs 27,000 crore, funding a range of populist freebies schemes over the last ten years.
The differentiator: total prohibition as opposed to the phase-wise liquor ban promised by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Addressing the long-standing water wars with neighbouring Karnataka and Kerala, the PMK is offering a Rs 50,000-crore irrigation project and a separate budget for agriculture.
Over the last several polls, the PMK switched sides between the Dravidian arch-rivals every time and improved its tally. But in the 2011 assembly polls, it won just two seats and in the last Lok Sabha polls it allied with the BJP and won just one seat.
For around two decades it was the PMK which has been actively demanding and campaigning for prohibition. The MDMK followed suit and for the first time Prohibition has become a poll issue.
And just like the two big parties in the state it's Chief Ministerial candidate Dr Anbumani Ramadoss is promising dry days ahead in a state where state-run liquor shops generate an annual revenue of Rs 27,000 crore, funding a range of populist freebies schemes over the last ten years.
The differentiator: total prohibition as opposed to the phase-wise liquor ban promised by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
Addressing the long-standing water wars with neighbouring Karnataka and Kerala, the PMK is offering a Rs 50,000-crore irrigation project and a separate budget for agriculture.
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Over the last several polls, the PMK switched sides between the Dravidian arch-rivals every time and improved its tally. But in the 2011 assembly polls, it won just two seats and in the last Lok Sabha polls it allied with the BJP and won just one seat.
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For around two decades it was the PMK which has been actively demanding and campaigning for prohibition. The MDMK followed suit and for the first time Prohibition has become a poll issue.
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