CHENNAI: It was a well-fought battle, defying predictions of a “clean sweep” and springing quite a few surprises in the process. Out of power for a decade, the DMK finally managed to dethrone its Dravidian rival by a comfortable margin. MK Stalin, who has been waiting in the sidelines for the last several years, is all set to swear-in as the eighth Chief Minister of the State. At 68, he would be the oldest first-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. This is the first time in 25 years that the DMK has secured a majority on its own.
For AIADMK, the defeat was not as bad as predicted. It would be the strongest AIADMK Opposition in the history of State Assembly, which indicates that the anti-incumbency factor was not as close as it was predicted. The biggest takeaway, however is this: Tamil Nadu has, once again, decisively, shut the doors on the so-called “Third Front”. Self-proclaimed centrist Kamal Haasan’s party, MNM, scored a duck, with even the actor himself losing the race. Instead, Seeman’s Naam Tamizhar Katchi emerged as the underdog, in the third place.
BJP put up a poor show compared to its national rival Congress. However, the saffron party did manage to get MLAs elected into the State Assembly after decades. The Congress, meanwhile, put up an impressive show, winning 6 and leading in 11 out of the 25 seats in which it contested. “This is a vote for change,” says veteran journalist G Kubendran. “Caste politics has been voted out, as sitting ministers including MC Sampath, CVe Shanmugam and KC Veeramani have lost despite the last-minute internal quota given to Vanniyars.”
Edappadi K Palaniswami, however, managed to retain his Kongu belt forte. The same pro-AIADMK sentiment did not resonate in Southern districts, considered to be a bastion of O Panneerselvam. The capital city and its surrounding districts gave a resounding mandate to DMK, with the party winning almost all seats here.
“The election victory is the result of hardwork put in by Stalin,” said another scribe, T Koodalarasan. This election will go down in history for one more reason, for the thumping victory of Udhayanidhi Stalin, the heir-apparent of the DMK. The winning mojo rubbed off on Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha bypoll, too, with Congress candidate Vijay Vasanth securing a vote margin of one lakh over the BJP.
NDA scripting history in puducherry
Puducherry: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), for the first time in history, is set to form the government in Puducherry, a Congress bastion. The alliance, led by All India NR Congress (AINRC), has been declared by the ECI to have won 16 seats in the 30-member Assembly, gaining a wafer-thin majority. While the AINRC won 10 seats, the BJP has won six seats. It is to be noted that most BJP candidates who won were Congress turncoats