Poaching season is open: Tamil Nadu's MLAs now come with a price list

Somewhere in Tamil Nadu, there is a price list. It is not printed, but everyone in politics seems to know the rates. This week, TTV Dhinakaran alleged that Chief Minister Vijay secured the support of around 25 AIADMK MLAs "through promises." A few months ago, it was the TVK alleging that the DMK had offered its MLAs between ₹10 crore and ₹50 crore to defect — a complaint by TVK MLA N. Elaiyaraja that led to arrests, including of a DMK MLA's brother. And the Left parties, campaigning for the bypolls, pointed to the two winners who quit the AIADMK and joined the TVK within twenty days of being elected on AIADMK tickets. Three parties, three accusations, one market. The commodity is the MLA; the currency is the promise; the customer is whoever holds power or wants it. Defenders will recite the Tenth Schedule. The anti-defection law exists, they will say. But the law punishes the defector who crosses the floor — it has far less to say about the resignation laundered into a fresh mandate. Resign, switch, recontest, win: the by-election becomes a washing machine for engineered defections, and the voter is dragooned into endorsing a transaction they never agreed to. Dhinakaran himself, demanding EC action against serial resigners, has identified the loophole even as his own camp trades in the same bazaar. Periyar would have recognised this instantly. He warned that democracy without social conscience becomes a marketplace where the poor man's vote is harvested and the rich man's purchase is honoured. What is an MLA bought with promises — of ministries, money, or both — except the voter's mandate resold at a markup, with the voter cut out of the profit? The Dravidian movement fought to take power from zamindars and hand it to the people. Today the zamindari has moved inside the assembly: the seat belongs to whoever can pay the sitting price. Two things must change. First, resignations engineered to facilitate party-hopping should attract disqualification, not a red-carpet by-election. A representative who quits to switch sides should sit out, not shop around. Second, the Election Commission must treat Dhinakaran's demand seriously — a resignation within months of an election, followed by a party switch, is not a personal decision; it is prima facie evidence of a deal, and it should be investigated as one. Until then, the price list stays in circulation. And every Tamil voter should ask, the next time their MLA switches jerseys: what was I sold for?