Clothing reality: TN politicians bid for new appeal

Until some years ago, a typical male politician in Tamil Nadu had to mandatorily wear a spotless white khadi shirt and dhoti to appeal to the common man. Sporting modern attire would have prompted people to dub him an elitist. At one point in time when it came to finalising the head of a government in a coalition regime, some of the traditional politicians took enormous pride in declaring, “a dhoti-clad Tamil will decide who becomes the Prime Minister.”However, with demographic changes indicating that youth and first time voters of the social media age could play a key role in deciding the electoral fortunes of a candidate, some politicians have begun to reinvent themselves to reach out to this segment of population.The competition to present oneself in an avatar that is deemed more…

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