As India headed for a snap poll after the fall of the I.K. Gujral government, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was to make her debut election speech on January 11, 1998, in Sriperumbudur, where former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated seven years earlier. Among the crowd when one raised the slogan “Sonia Gandhi…”, the rest responded: “Zindabad.” I asked them what it meant. They had no idea. Noticing my smile, one asked, “Saar, you tell us. Did we say something wrong?” I shrugged. The next instance, he switched to “Vandemataram!” and looked at me for approval. I smiled again and walked to the press gallery to hear Sonia Gandhi say: “I stand today on the soil drenched by the blood of my husband who died a martyr for the unity of the country.”

Such encounters were common during the elections. Two years earlier, amid resentment against Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha (as she spelt her name then), an elderly woman loudly criticised the regime. But when asked whom she would vote for, she replied firmly: “Rettai Illai” (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s ‘Two Leaves’). Wasn’t that Jayalalitha’s symbol? “Adhu MGR chinnam (That’s MGR’s symbol),” she said, revealing her emotional bond with party founder M. G. Ramachandran.