While the AIADMK vote share has gone up significantly, corruption charges against Jayalalitha were not vote-catching slogans. After all, the AIADMK under Jayalalitha has emerged as a 'rural industry' which has become a channel for 'money circulation' that the party manages to mobilise while in power. Its return to power has much to do with ensuring a return to status quo, especially in the western industrial regions of the state. Nevertheless, the poll results are likely to bring about changes in the political landscape, because it is now clear that populist mobilisation based on the dichotomy of anti-Aryanisation versus Dravidian nativity will no longer yield results.
