Amidst the 2014 general election, VCK parliamentary candidate D. Ravikumar stands in an open-air jeep as it barrels down the pothole-stricken roads stitching together remote villages across Tiruvallur district, northern Tamil Nadu. Today, a sizeable entourage has amassed behind his campaign vehicle. It includes some twenty-odd SUVs followed by a sea of motorcycles with monitors from the ECI nipping at their heels. Unbeknownst to the campaign team, the caravan went off route when a wrong turn ushered the convoy into the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh. This mistake becomes apparent only after a polite bystander informs the candidate's driver that he is no longer in Tamil Nadu. This news quickly travels up the chain of command, prompting the candidate's microphone to be cut mid-speech as campaign leaders are apprised of their blunder. In quick succession, the navigator is cursed, engines roar to life, and the convoy swiftly lurches back toward Tamil Nadu. Today, there is a palpable anxiety in the air due to the sheer number of far-flung villages left to visit before ECI monitors bring the day's activities to an abrupt halt at 10:00 pm. If a village is omitted, campaign organizers fear that their local workers, who have assembled their community and are waiting impatiently with firecrackers and decorative shawls to welcome the caravan, may interpret their absence as a personal slight, leaving them more susceptible to “influence money” doled out by rival party operatives.

Presently immersed in a two-week blitz across Tiruvallur district, the motley convoy of jeeps, SUVs, motorcycles, and auto-rickshaws—the vehicles vary by day depending on the local terrain—traverses half of a legislative assembly constituency each day. As parliamentary districts typically consist of six legislative constituencies, this involves twelve days of grueling dawn-till-dusk electioneering in which the candidate interacts with voters throughout the region. While preparations begin well before sunrise, electioneering kicks off by 9 a.m. and concludes abruptly at 10 p.m., if election monitors are present A festive atmosphere greets the candidate and his entourage at each stop as they race across the constituency at breakneck speed. First, firecrackers announce their imminent arrival.