Chennai: It was all going to plan till April 12: The ruling ADMK-BJP combine extolling the virtues of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Opposition DMK-Congress alliance promising change, minimum income and better jobs. Then came Rahul Gandhi, with his unusually mature speeches in several southern Tamil Nadu cities, which most likely were written by local spinmasters. Tamil Nadu will be allowed to keep its identity and culture, he said, unlike the BJP, which wants to homogenise India. Among the many local issues he touched upon was the controversial National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical admissions.

Earlier, in states like TN, colleges affiliated to the state admitted students based on their Std XII scores. With NEET, they had to take an English all-India entrance exam tailored for CBSE students, which disadvantaged state board and Tamil-medium students, who nonetheless had high scores in Std XII. This culminated in the suicide of a student S Anitha.