Chennai, April 23: He has promised quality rice at Rs 2 a kg.

She has promised to give 10 kg free.

And somebody else has promised 15 kg free.

Get the picture?

Yes, it’s rice that’s dominating all the election talk in poll-bound Tamil Nadu and probably holds the key to victory or defeat.

It was the M. Karunanidhi-led DMK that first sprang the “quality rice” offer at just Rs 2 a kg for ration card holders against the existing price of Rs 3.5 a kg. In other words, if the party succeeds in toppling Jayalalithaa’s ADMK, all those covered under the public distribution system can take home their monthly quota of 20 kg at Rs 40, instead of the Rs 70 they need to shell out now for the state’s staple food.

The announcement came on March 29, exactly a month after Karunanidhi’s central ally, Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, slashed the overall food subsidy by Rs 2,000 to Rs 24,200 crore in his budget for 2006-07.

While the subsidy slash hardly bothered the DMK veteran, his rival, Jayalalithaa, decided it was time she too played a bit of rice politics.

The ADMK leader came up with an even better offer ? 10 kg of rice free to all ration card holders, or Rs 35 for their monthly quota.

Now the rice was truly on the boil.

Karunanidhi was livid.

“Why did not Jayalalithaa give 10 kg of free rice when farmers committed suicide during the severe drought three years ago?” he thundered at every campaign meeting over the last two days.

“This shows that hers is a panic reaction as she fears defeat,” he said in Madurai today.

He probably didn’t foresee that the rice war would spawn another competitor.

Actor Vijayakant, whose outfit is contesting all the 234 seats in the state, has promised 15 kg of free rice every month to all poor families as well as a free milch cow. “Your monthly rations will be served at your doorstep,” he told his fans while campaigning in state capital Chennai.

The promises have come at a time when the Centre has decided to increase the issue price of rice for above poverty line families from Rs 8.30 a kg to Rs 9.15 a kg. Though the decision has been put on hold because of the Assembly polls in five states, Tamil Nadu’s food subsidy bill for this year is expected to go up to a whopping Rs 1,500 crore.

But Karunanidhi says he can deliver on his “realistic promise” by finding an extra cash of about Rs 540 crore a year by stripping the liquor lobby of its huge excise duty concessions. “I have been a finance minister and I know how to tap the money,” he said.

The freebie rush has prompted a BJP leader to say the two major Dravidian parties are “robbing people of their self-esteem”.

Try telling that to the rice rivals.