CHENNAI: A booth-level analysis of voting patterns in resettlement sites in and around Chennai show that while the two major Dravidian parties - DMK and AIADMK - continue to dominate for now, there is also a notable chunk of the population which is looking for alternatives.
TNIE analysed booth-wise voting trends in major resettlement sites - Perumbakkam, Semmenchery, Kannagi Nagar, and Ezhil Nagar in south Chennai, and KP Park in Pulianthope in north Chennai, across the 2016 and 2021 assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Perumbakkam, one of the city’s largest resettlement areas with a population of around 1 lakh, stood with BJP in 2024, with the party securing 17.39% of the votes, against the 11.2% it polled across the state.
The party, which was not in an alliance with the AIADMK during that time, did much better in at least 13 of the 45 polling booths in the area, gaining as many as 281 more votes in one of the booths. In 2021, Kamal Haasan’s MNM had picked up a 7.12% vote share from Perumbakkam.
The BJP’s vote share here was 3.53% in 2016, almost in line with the 2.84% it secured overall in the state. In Kannagi Nagar, the vote share for the saffron party saw an increase from 0.97% in 2016 to 6.5% in the 2024 elections.
NTK, which had a vote share of 1.1% in the state in 2016, secured between 1% and 3% in these resettlement sites - 1.26% in Semmenchery, 1.47% in Ezhil Nagar, 2.21% in Kannagi Nagar, and 3% in Perumbakkam - but this number has increased to 7%-10.5% in the 2021 election across these sites.
Kannagi Nagar recorded the highest at 10.5%, followed by Perumbakkam (10.42%) and Semmenchery (10.32%), while Ezhil Nagar saw 7.82%. This was much higher than the statewide vote share which was around 6.6% at the time.
“The people here are very diverse and have been brought from different areas across the city and its suburbs. We cannot be bracketed as supporters of any one party,” said a 43-year-old Sharmila (name changed). Once a staunch supporter of VCK (a tattoo of the party flag on her wrist attests to it), her active participation in politics has dwindled ever since she was moved to Perumbakkam, she said.
Anger towards the AIADMK was evident among residents of KP Park, where the buildings were constructed during its tenure (2018–2019), following allegations that the contractor carried out poor-quality work along with cost irregularities in the project.
The residents subsequently consolidated behind the DMK in 2021, giving it 65.71% of their votes, up from 42.93% in 2016. In contrast, the AIADMK’s vote share declined from 47.92% in 2016 to a mere 17.39% in 2021.
While not as severely as in KP Park, the AIADMK has witnessed a dwindling base in other sites. Across Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK lost roughly 8–10 percentage points between 2016 and 2021. But in Ezhil Nagar and Semmenchery, it fell by 20 percentage points and 17 percentage points respectively.
“Resettling us here is one thing, but continuing to keep us here without ensuring safety for women and children and even basic infrastructure, is unacceptable. Some of the party people themselves are involved in selling drugs,” said Vidhya (name changed) of Perumbakkam.
In one of the largest resettlement drives during the DMK reign, around 3,500 individuals from Anakaputhur were forcibly resettled for the ‘Adyar restoration’ to Perumbakkam, Thailavaram, and Keerappakkam, by May last year. Several of these families had traditionally voted for DMK; one of the areas in Anakaputhur had been named after Chief Minister MK Stalin.
“We were misled by the DMK MLA I Karunanithi and Minister Tha Mo Anbarasan that our houses would not be torn down, right until the day before the demolition. For being DMK loyalists, we expected to be treated with humanity, if nothing else. Many of the Muslim families here (resettled to Perumbakkam) have decided to vote for the TVK, “ said Kaja, who was resettled from Anakaputhur.