A difficult sunrise? Despite lead in seats, DMK holds marginal lead in vote share

The Tamil Nadu Assembly election results show that the DMK, led by M K Stalin, is most likely to lead the next government in the southern state.

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With a lead in over 140 seats, the DMK alliance is well on its way to a comfortable majority. However, a closer look at the seats won by its allies, along with the vote shares relative to the AIAMDK, tells a somewhat different story.

As per ECI trends, the DMK has a lead in 119 seats, which allows it to form a government on its own, if it wins. However, the party only has 26,58,325 votes, forming 36.9 per cent of the total votes tallied so far. In comparison, the AIADMK, which leads in 82 seats, has 24,45,362 votes, forming 33.9 per cent of the total votes tallied so far.

Read | Tamil Nadu Polls 2021: Constituency-wise Live Results

The Congress, which is working in alliance with the DMK, has a vote share of 4 per cent, with a little under 3 lakh lakh votes under its belt.

The BJP, the AIADMK's ally in the election, has a paltry 2.5 per cent of the vote share, with less than 2 lakh votes under its belt.