WELFARE STREET
On February 26, barely hours before the Election Commission declared the schedule for the assembly election, Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) made the last of a string of ‘poll sop’ announcements. In a landmark waiver to retain the support of women—the mainstay of the AIADMK since the days of the late party icon, J. Jayalalithaa—EPS waived the small loans taken by women self-help groups from cooperative banks and societies (by pledging up to six sovereigns of gold as security).
On the same day, the legislative assembly passed a bill to provide 10.5 per cent reservation for the Vanniyar community in education and jobs within the 20 per cent quota for the Most Backward Classes and De-Notified Communities
