CHENNAI: The Pressure Cooker lost its steam, the Torch its battery... Basically, Tamil Nadu voters have left no space for a third alternative to emerge in the State. Now, the future of these smaller parties appears, at best, bleak. Facing a near-washout in this elections, it appears that TTV Dhinakaran is no more in a position to challenge the might of the current AIADMK leadership, which put up a good fight against the DMK.
In a sense, the election results were a win-win situation for both Stalin and Palaniswami. While Stalin has proved his mettle by winning the elections, Palaniswami may convince his partymen that the performance was a decent one. But, a lot of small parties have done well. Another aspect of the results was that it adds much diversity to the Assembly house.
The diversity of opinion in the next Tamil Nadu Assembly is expected to increase with seven political parties sending the representative to the new House, some after a gap of 15 years. While CPI, CPM and PMK will be sending representatives to the Assembly after five years, MDMK members (who contested under the DMK symbol) and VCK members will be seen in the House after 15 years.
For the BJP, its goal of the ‘lotus’ blooming in Tamil Nadu has been realised after two decades. Although the MDMK was launched 27 years ago, its members have only been elected to the House once so far. In 2006, the party won six seats after contesting in 35 constituencies as part of an AIADMK-led alliance. In 2011, it boycotted the Assembly polls after a difference of opinion with the AIADMK over seat allocations.
In 2016, it contested from 29 seats as part of the People’s Welfare Front, but won none. Now, the party has won four out of the six seats it contested on the DMK’s rising sun symbol. However, they will be recorded as DMK members in the Assembly and by the Election Commission. Meanwhile, the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi will be sending a member to the House for the first time, but its MLA will be considered DMK as the party contested on the DMK’s symbol.
The PMK, which looks set to win four out of 23 seats it contested from as part of the AIADMK alliance, will be entering the House after 2011. Similarly, the Left parties, which have won two seats each as part of the DMK alliance, will be representing their views in the Assembly after five years. A significant win is that of Thol Thirumavalan-led VCK, in alliance with the DMK, in four out of six seats. The party was last represented in the House in 2006 when two members were elected as part of an AIADMK alliance.
For the BJP, however, even victory in just four (as of 11.45 pm) of the 20 seats it contested in as part of the AIADMK’s alliance gives it the foothold in Tamil Nadu that it has sought since 2001, when it won four seats in an alliance with the DMK. The party’s national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, led a high-voltage campaign in the State and are likely to be pleased with their gains.
TTV Dhinakaran himself lost out the race to Kadambur C Raju of AIADMK in Kovilpatti. While Raju scored 68,556 votes, AMMK’s Dhinakaran secured 56153 votes, CPM candidate K Srinivasan earned only 37,380 votes to end up in the third position. Raju emerged successful with a difference of 12,403 votes. Naam Tamilar Katchi’s Gomathi Mariappan garnered 9,213 votes to end up fourth in the line. The AMMK party largely hoped on the caste based vote bank.
During the counting for round five, Dhinakaran came close making a margin of 19 votes against Raju, which was the Kayathar region, stronghold for the AMMK party. However, Raju managed to increase the margin from thereon. In the run up to the polls, the AMMK cadre had clashes with the AIADMK cadre at many places.
Political analysts said, “The AMMK was unsuccessful due to its caste-leaning approach, and that they could not pass the muster”. As two heavy weights locked horns against each, the DMK’s ally CPM could not score despite Kovilpatti being a labour intensive region, they added. The defeat of AMMK general secretary would demean the political aspirations of the party itself as they had always orchestrated that they are the true AIADMK stock. The party had not won any Assembly seats in the elections, they pointed out.