Rent-a-crowd in TN for poll rallies, rate at Rs 1,200 a person

CHENNAI: The 'hottest' summer job for students in Chennai isn't at multinationals or malls. For rates ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 1,200, students, are being paid to attend political rallies in and outside Chennai.

With the assembly election less than a month away, political leaders have set off on their campaign trail addressing massive rallies. All the big parties have set targets for district secretaries to bring in the crowds (up to 20,000 people each) and locals are wooed with cash and food packets and transported in buses and vans to the venue. While leaders have directly herded crowds to venues so far, outsourcing this job to agencies seems to be a new trend.

Some event managers, who specialize in political events, are offering ‘rent-a-crowd' packages. BJP state treasurer S R Sekhar says he was approached by a trio recently with professional-looking brochures offering to supply crowds for rallies.

“They had professional looking brochures with specific rates such as Rs 600 each for men, Rs 800 for women and Rs 1,200 for students to attend the rally ­the rates varying based on demand and supply.

They were willing to supply 10,000 people in Chennai, 5,000 outside Chennai -a fully paid and hired crowd,“ he said. D Jagadeeswaran, spokesperson of Loksatta party, said that they had also come across manpower agencies in the city offering to supply students for rallies and distribute pamphlets.

“Our party rallies are not very big, we rely only on our volunteer network. However, we have come across agencies which offer to send college students for Rs 200-300 a day for rallies, and people to distribute pamphlets (25 paise per pamphlet). We have to give them cash, lunch, dinner and, sometimes, liquor,“ he said. However, with summer holidays looming, it's becoming harder to get hold of them in large numbers.