CHENNAI: Former Union minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan, who won Kanyakumari seat with a margin of over 1.28 lakh votes, may be the lone BJP member in Lok Sabha from Tamil Nadu but the party that is set to form the government at the Centre has improved its showing in the State with its Coimbatore candidate C P Radhakrishnan and two others of other parties who contested on the Lotus symbol, finishing second.
But for Vaiko in Virudhunagar, Ganeshamurthi in Erode (both MDMK), A K Moorthy (PMK) in Arani and N Dinesh Kumar (DMDK) in Tirupur who were runner ups in their constituencies, all the candidates of the rainbow coalition of NDA finished third, pushing the Congress to the fourth spot other than in Kanyakumari, where H Vasantha Kumar came second.
The BJP, by wresting the Kanyakumari seat, robbed the Congress of its only citadel in Tamil Nadu. Among the other BJP candidates, who stood third was L Ganesan in South Chennai. In Sivaganga, where P Chidambaram’s son Karti was the candidate, and Ramanathapuram, the only constituency that was visited by Rahul Gandhi to campaign for their candidate and former Union Minister S Thirunavukarasar, too BJP candidates polled more votes than the Congress.
The Congress vote share was so poor that even if it had aligned with the DMK — as it did in the previous elections and won eight seats in the State — it would not have come first in any of the constituencies.
In the consitituencies where the same candidates were renominated by the party, the performance was dismal. Apart from Karti, Aaron Rashid in Theni, Manickam Tagore in Virudhunagar and S Ramasubbu in Tirunelveli were defeated miserably.
So, even in the Jayalalithaa wave that swept through the State, the Lotus managed to stay afloat and it was the Hand, which was pushed aside. However, the election proved that the DMK was the second largest party in the State. Though its scored was a big zero, 30 of its candidates came second in the polling.