In the 'winner takes it all' battle for power, political parties in Tamil Nadu are fast preparing their ground for next year's assembly elections, arguably one of the toughest electoral battles in recent years.
Elections to 234 seats are a few months away, but parties, including Dravidian majors and arch rivals AIADMK and DMK are leaving no stone unturned in their bid to reach out to voters, both in the real world and the virtual space.
Ruling AIADMK, on a high octane mode following acquittal of party supremo J Jayalalithaa in a wealth case that led to her comeback as Chief Minister, has set an ambitious target of "#mission234," netting all the Assembly segments.
Jayalalithaa had set the ball rolling recently when she directed supporters to start reaching out to people with her more than four-year old government's achievements-- ranging from populist measures like free milch cows and laptop schemes to the recent 'success' of the Global Investors Meet, which attracted Rs 2.42 lakh crore investment proposals.
The party's IT Wing, which manages its Twitter account, had recently released two videos, hailing Jayalalithaa, addressed as 'Amma' (Mother) by supporters.
While one of them carried punchlines embossed on still shots of the Chief Minister such as "Amma is Brave" and "Amma is Back", the other said the state was enjoying a "bright present" and will have a "glistening future," with a picture of a waving Jayalalithaa.
The CM had also restructured the party ranks recently, shuffling and or appointing 50 District Secretaries, considered to be the key in party functioning. This was seen as a poll-related move.
The party has given ample indications of facing the polls by itself, although Jayalalithaa stitched up a rainbow alliance in 2011 to take on the then ruling DMK.
