Flags of a colour

The general elections rise in the east, tomorrow, with Assam and Tripura starting off their voting process. They come to Tamil Nadu on the 24th; which means that for the next couple of weeks, the noise and the colour will keep rising, until it all falls silent on April 22. 

Chennai has 3 seats in the Lok Sabha - North, Central and South, with the last one being  the largest in terms of number of voters. The last day for candidates to file their nominations was yesterday and they have until Wednesday to change their minds. In the recent years, the Election Commission of India has put in place several conditions that have served to make the campaigning more sterile, even if that was not the intent.

Such a display of flags and buntings is therefore not very common. And as I look through the picture, I find that I am not able to recognize two of the three flags there - what is the "DMP"? The closest equivalent I could find was the All Kerala MGR Dravida Munnetra Party - but what could it be doing in Chennai, and with a picture of Dr. Ambedkar at that? And what is that blue-white-red flag with a chakra in the centre? Would people actually be able to figure out all of the who-is-who (and, because of all those poll alliances, who-is-whose) in the next fortnight? Tough choices ahead!