MADURAI: Tamil Nadu’s politics have been on a rollercoaster ride since the death of AIADMK supremo and chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2016. TTV Dhinakaran, nephew of Jayalalithaa’s confidante Sasikala, has played a key role in the aftermath of the leader’s death. After winning the bypoll to the RK Nagar Assembly seat, represented by Jaya, TTV became the man to look out for.
His Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam was expected to hurt the AIADMK in its traditional stronghold of the southern districts by taking or splitting the crucial Thevar votes in the region. Further, the man himself, a colourful and engaging public speaker, focused on the nine southern LS seats.
All that ended on Thursday, when the results to the 22 Assembly bypolls and 38 Lok Sabha seats in the State revealed that the party had limited impact, even in the seats it was expected to win. The party was not recognised and its candidates contested as independents on a common symbol allotted in the last minute. It is not known how much this affected its performance.
In Madurai, where Dhinakaran had launched the party last March, the AMMK was pushed to third place behind AIADMK and CPM. In Theni, which was the party’s next best bet, TTV’s lieutenant Thanga Tamilselvan came in third as Raveendranath Kumar, son of deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, romped to victory, the Congress EVKS Elangovan, an outsider to the constituency, coming second.
Similarly, Marriappan Kennedy, one of the disqualified MLA, who again contested from Manamadurai, this time as an AMMK candidate, struggled to keep his deposit and came in third. The party’s candidate P Jothimurugan was less successful in Dindigul, losing his deposit despite AIADMK having given the seat to ally PMK, which lacks a base there.
The party did manage to come in third in eight Southern constituencies including Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Thenkasi, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, Theni, Dindigul and Ramanathapuram.
However, it was evident that the party had failed to make as significant a dent in the AIADMK’s vote share as had been anticipated, posing little threat to the Dravidian majors. Notably, despite TTV’s claims that 90 per cent of AIADMK cadre being with him, his party’s candidates did not even get 1 lakh votes in some constituencies.
Speaking to Express, an AMMK functionary noted that the people’s verdict was so different and that the party would have to introspect and change its approach. A former MLA, who contested in the bypoll, said that even if the crowds that gathered to hear TTV campaign had voted for them, the party would have won at least five seats.