With Tamil Nadu voting for all its Lok Sabha seats on April 19, the curtains have come down on the short campaign in the state. The four-cornered race was dominated by the three major fronts: the DMK-led INDIA bloc, the AIADMK alliance and the BJP front. While the fourth party, the NTK, has its own following, its candidates are not expected to win any seats.
The DMK front was expected to benefit from a split in opposition votes after the AIADMK parted ways with the BJP late last year. The BJP went into the election seeming confident at having usurped the AIADMK’s space as the principal opposition party. However, by the end of the campaign, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, who had spent the past few years resolving a leadership tussle within the party, reasserted himself and his party as a force to reckon with, a reminder to the saffron party that the AIADMK would not so easily cede its space.
Despite getting off to a rocky start in terms of stitching together an alliance—the BJP swept up the PMK, which has a significant vote share in some parts of the state—and lacking many star campaigners, EPS campaigned tirelessly while the party’s ground workers covered the last mile. The latter appeared to be a weakness in the BJP campaign, which relied on big-name leaders including Narendra Modi, who has visited the state at least 10 times this year.
The high-voltage campaign, a first from the BJP in the state, signalled TN’s importance to the party. However, the party still seems to find trouble in singling out issues that can connect with a broad range of voters; its Katchatheevu gambit, for instance, fizzled out with little impact. Still, in K Annamalai it appears to have found a leader attractive to younger voters and with a willingness to play the long game in building the party in the state.
As for the DMK alliance, the race might be closer than most expected in at least a few seats. The campaign tapped into voter frustration and a simmering mood of anti-incumbency against DMK government. To retain power in the 2026 assembly elections, the party will have to immediately embark on course correction and address key concerns flagged across the state.