Vaiko also urged his supporters to avoid adorning him shawls and instead donate the amount for the party’s development. The announcement comes in the wake Vaiko getting elected for Rajya Sabha and a large number of supporters coming to see him with shawls to greet him.

Sources close to Vaiko said, “Our party leader on several occasions has given oral instructions to cadre to avoid extravagance such as shawls, posters and flex banners but there was no compliance from them. To make this a strict practice among the cadre, our leader has officially given the instructions to contribute the funds for the party”. Sources also said that Vaiko has no use for shawls and that he is not in a position to sell them back as certain other politicians do. So, he had decided to collect funds for the party through the photograph stint. 

However, this is not the first time that a politician has asked its cadre to avoid shawls and has sought money for taking photos. According to political observer, Raveendran Duraisamy, DMDK leader, Vijayakant, followed a similar strategy during the early days of his party’s foundation. “Vijayakant used to collect up to Rs 500 from party cadre for taking photos with him but it was only in the early stages. After establishing himself, he avoided collecting money,” said Duraisamy.

In the recent past, DMK President, MK Stalin, too made a similar announcement asking his party cadre to avoid shawls and instead donate books for the party library. Senior Congress leader Kumari Anandhan is still following the policy of avoiding shawls from his supporters.

On the other hand, a former Union Minister from Madurai reportedly used to collect all the shawls that adorned him and would sell it to a garment shop owned by one of his close associates in Madurai. Several AIADMK leaders are also known to return flower bouquets gifted to them to florists for reuse.

“Our leader has no such avenue to return stuff, so he has asked cadre to directly donate to the party,” an MDMK source said.