Comments
Tamil Nadu bucked the national trend as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led alliance swept the State with leads/victories in 37 out of 38 constituencies.
The Election Commission cancelled elections in Vellore constituency after a large amount of cash was seized from the premises of a DMK functionary.
DMK and its alliance partners — Congress, CPI, CPI (M), IUML (Indian Union Muslim League), VCK (Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi) — won with significant margins in most constituencies. The combined vote share of DMK and its alliance partners was over 50 per cent.
“With folded hands, we accept the resounding victory given to the DMK alliance by the people of Tamil Nadu. During the next five years, we will work hard to fulfil the promises made and protect the interest of our State,” tweeted MK Stalin, DMK President.
For the Congress, its performance in Tamil Nadu comes as a saving grace, boosting its tally past its 2014 performance. While the BJP and its alliance parties were sweeping other States, Tamil Nadu gave a thumping win to BJP’s rival alliance in the State. Just one Lok Sabha seat went to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which had the BJP, the Paatali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) as its alliance partners.
Battling anti-incumbency (both State and Central government) and the absence of a strong leader like Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK-alliance failed to make an impact.
With strong negative sentiments against the party in the State, the BJP failed to win even one of the five seats it contested this time. Last time, BJP’s Pon Radhakrishnan had won in Kanyakumari district. AIADMK was leading in Theni in southern Tamil Nadu where deputy Chief Minister O Pannerselvam’s son P Raveendranath Kumar was leading by about 50,000 votes against EVKS Elangovan, former State president of the Congress.
In 2014, the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK contested alone in the Lok Sabha elections and won 37 of the 39 seats.
K Kanimozhi, Dayanidhi Maran, Karti Chidambaram and A Raja, all of whom are facing corruption cases, have won with significant margins in the constituencies they contested.
Prominent losers include Tamilisai Soundararajan, state BJP President, Pon Radhakrishnan, who served as Union Minister the past five years, H Raja, a senior BJP leader, and M Thambidurai, a senior leader of AIADMK and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.