M.K. Stalin, Tamil Nadu state Chief Minister and leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party, speaks during a press conference on the day of IndiaÕs general election results, in Chennai, India, June 4, 2024.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Chennai: Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin on Tuesday led the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) to an emphatic landslide victory in Tamil Nadu, winning all 40 constituencies, including the lone Puducherry seat and decimating both principal opposition parties, AIADMK, and BJP, which cobbled up a coalition of its own for the Lok Sabha polls.
The stunning performance by the SPA comprising of DMK, Congress, CPI (M), CPI, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Kongu Nadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KDMK), Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) is reminiscent of the combine’s 40/40 score in 2004, that led to the formation of the UPA-I government.
“We have delivered what we promised. The BJP has been pushed to a position where it cannot form a government on its own. We (I.N.D.I.A. alliance) have saved the Indian democracy and Constitution,” Stalin said in his first reaction to the victory which he said was “much bigger” than the one the alliance got in 2019 when the score was 38-1.
DMK’s victory in the April 19 elections was a foregone conclusion given the alliance’s proven arithmetic strength, populist schemes of the three-year-old government, and vertical split in opposition votes.
AIADMK and BJP, which broke their ties and contested by stitching their own alliances, failed to make any mark, even as the saffron party’s tall claims of having “grown exponentially” in the state fell flat with its state unit chief K Annamalai himself losing to DMK’s Ganapathi P Rajkumar in Coimbatore.
The drubbing is a major setback for the AIADMK, which hasn’t won any election since the death of its leader J Jayalalithaa in 2016, with its vote share falling to a mere 21 per cent at the time of writing.
The landslide win puts the DMK in a pole position as the state heads to assembly elections in less than two years in 2026 and helps the party play an important role in national politics yet again with the party winning 22 seats.
However, Stalin ruled out his candidature for the post of Prime Minister even in the event of the I.N.D.I.A. Bloc deciding to stake a claim to form the government by repeating his father M Karunanidhi’s famous statement, “I know my height.” The DMK chief will be in Delhi on Wednesday.
Former Karnataka-cadre IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil, who quit service after Modi got his mandate renewed in 2019, won from Tiruvallur seat by a margin of 5.63 lakh votes, highest in the state, while influential parties like the PMK also bit the dust.
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, T R Baalu, A Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, Karti P Chidambaram, S Jothimani, Manickam Tagore, Tamizhachi Thangapandian, and Thol Thirumavalavan are some of the prominent winners in the state with a majority of the candidate romping home with margins running into lakhs.
Prominent among the losers are former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Union Minister of State L Murugan, BJP floor leader in Assembly Nainar Nagendran, and A C Shanmugam (all BJP), Sowmiya Anbumani (PMK), and J Jayavardhan (AIADMK).
Though the BJP and their alliance partners failed to win seats, they did manage to relegate the AIADMK to the third position in 12 constituencies, including two seats in Chennai, in its bastion of Coimbatore, and in Theni and Ramanathapuram where former AIADMK leaders T T V Dhinakaran and O Panneerselvam contested as part of the saffron party’s alliance.
The BJP, though didn’t live up to its own expectations of winning seats on its own in the Dravidian citadel, posted a significant increase in its vote share which stood at 11 per cent at the time of writing, a steep increase from its 2019 figure of 3.66 per cent.
An alliance with the PMK, an influential party in north Tamil Nadu for its support base among Vanniyars, and other smaller parties too didn’t help the BJP, which hoped to open its account as part of its efforts to make inroads in the state.
Naam Tamizhar Katchi, a Tamil nationalist outfit known for its controversial policies, did perform better than expected by polling over 7 percent of votes with its candidates managing to get over 1 lakh votes in a couple of seats.
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