In Tamil Nadu’s Legislative Assembly elections, there’s one alliance that is often taken for granted — that of elections and biryani.

The delicacy, which involves the slow cooking of rice in thick gravy of mutton or chicken, and is usually served to accompaniments of the dalchar (non-vegetarian lentil stew), and a yoghurt and onion chutney, plus a boiled egg crowning the helping, has for long been the staple treat on the election trail in Tamil Nadu.

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This year, though, the bond between politics and biryani has been strained by the war in West Asia that has inflated the price of LPG gas cylinders and as a collateral, that of firewood too, hitting mass caterers across the State.

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In Tiruchi, as in the rest of Tamil Nadu, meetings have been adapted to avoid the summer heat with most leaders timing it in the earlier hours of the day or in the late evenings to avoid excessive heat exposure. This has taken away the lunch slot, when party cadres and members of public attending meetings could expect to be served biryani.

Delayed payments

Many biryani caterers in the city said that they were not accepting orders from political party representatives because of a growing problem with delayed payments.

“Meeting organisers usually give a token advance of ₹1 lakh to get the biryani ready. But once the work is over, it takes us several months to claim the balance from political parties. We have to pay our staff and meet other expenses. A large banquet order usually has a budget layout of ₹3 to ₹4 lakh. With the current shortages in fuel and high price of ingredients, it is easier to cater to social gatherings, because at least the payments are assured,” a leading caterer in Tiruchi told The Hindu.

Restaurants in Tiruchi have taken to outsourcing biryani orders to master cooks from nearby towns during the election season to lessen the financial burden as the ingredients are provided by clients.

“For now, those who attend political gatherings from remote villages are given free parcels of biryani. Chicken biryani is preferred since it is cheaper than mutton. We use Thulasi variety of short-to-medium grain rice, which is more affordably priced than Basmati or Jeeraga Samba,” said Khaja Mohideen, a long-time biryani caterer based in Thanjavur.

“Our real business is on election day, when parties arrange for biryani parcels in bulk. We have cooked for up to 6,000 persons, with 750 kg of chicken and 600 kg of rice in recent political meetings,” he added.