Election Overdrive

Home Minister P Chidambaram seems to be working overtime to retain his Sivagangai Parliamentary seat. Almost every other week, we do see him participating in some function in his constituency. If you observe the news items quite closely you will notice that most of the functions were inauguration of bank branches, extension counters, self-help groups etc. Bank of India, Indian Bank, UCO Bank and State Bank of India are the banks which had recently expanded operations in the constituency. 

Union home minister P Chidambaram needs to woo nearly two lakh voters in Alangudi in Pudukottai district and more than a lakh of voters in Maanamadurai, previously in Ramanathapuram constituency. Chidambaram has inaugurated several bank branches in this rural segment, frequently touring his turf and interacting with a wide cross-section of the electorate. The high-profile MP has already begun organising workers' meetings to prepare them to build a fresh voter base for him in these regions. (Link)

Any layman can easily interpret that the erstwhile FM is trying to use his powerful office to influence Public Sector Banks to go on an expansion drive in this particular constituency. Since PC is participating in the event, the Bank Chairmen make it a point to take part in the launch events. Given the location of this district, it probably takes 2-3 days time of such Bank Chairmen (who are usually based in Mumbai / Kolkata as the case maybe). I’m not sure whether it makes sense for such Chairmen to even grace the occasion as this new branch (having a strength of about 2 – 10 people) could be quite insignificant in the whole scheme of things. The Banks also take out huge full page ads in national and regional dailies to announce the branch inauguration. This is again a big drain on the bank's resources. Let’s see if PC’s attempts to increase his image work to his favour in the elections. I’m also curious to see if PC’s son Karti gets a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha Polls.