The poll results of 15th assembly elections in Tamil Nadu made the ADMK party leader Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister again In a State where no regime has won a second successive mandate since 1984. Defying electoral history and alliance arithmetic the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has returned to power in Tamil Nadu with a clear majority of its own.
Earlier, Congress leader Kamaraj had enjoyed two terms as Chief Minister between 1954 and 1963. Barring these exceptions, Tamil Nadu has always given the mandate alternately to the AIADMK and the DMK.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa made it entirely on her own makes this an extraordinary personal achievement for her. She knit together a strategy that involved making sure that the party’s potent ‘Two Leaves’ symbol is featured on every ballot machine in all 234 constituencies. She had no major ally, and the seven candidates representing minor parties in her alliance were asked to contest on the AIADMK’s symbol.
The people of Tamil Nadu armed the ruling AIADMK with a total of 134 seats, but also gave the DMK-led combine 98 seats to make it historically the largest opposition elected to the Assembly.
This is the 13th time that the DMK supermo Karunanidhi, now 91, has won an assembly election. He has never been defeated since he began contesting elections in 1957.
Though the ruling AIADMK got a clear majority in the Assembly elections, an analysis of constituency-wise data has revealed that two AIADMK candidates had forfeited their deposits, polling less than one-sixth of the total votes cast. In contrast, all the 176 candidates fielded by the DMK managed to retain their deposit, while candidates of the DMDK, including its founder Vijayakant, ended up forfeiting deposits in 103 of the 104 seats it contested.
A six-cornered contest literally came to naught in terms of seats won. Ultimately, the verdict was split between the two Dravidian parties — the DMK (by itself taking 89 seats, with the Congress winning eight and IUML one) and the AIADMK — indicating that the idea of a third front or alternative is yet to cut its political teeth in the state.
The PWF–DMDK combine and the PMK did not manage to get even one seat. The BJP too was unable to open its account, though it came a close second or third in many seats.
Vijaykant’s DMDK didn’t win any seats in the recent Assembly elections. With securing just 2.4 per cent in the Assembly elections, DMDK, founded by actor-turned politician Vijaykant is set to lose its recognition as a State party by the Election Commission of India.
De-recognition by the Commission occurs when the party concerned does not meet the conditions specified by it, such as having at least one member to the Legislative Assembly of that State for every thirty members of that Assembly or any fraction of that number.
Contesting alone, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) won a vote share of 5.3 per cent in the Assembly elections. The majority of its votes have, as expected, come from the Vanniyar-dominated northern and western regions of Tamil Nadu.
The voters have made it as the third largest party despite the vicious campaign that PMK is a party of a (particular) community.
NOTA accounted for 1.3 per cent, or 5,61,244 votes of the total votes polled in the State in a closely fought Assembly election.
NOTA was ahead of Naam Tamilar Katchi (1.1 per cent), MDMK (0.9), CPI (0.8), VCK (0.8), CPI(M) (0.7), IUML (0.7), Tamil Maanila Congress (0.5), and Puthiya Tamilagam (0.5) .
At least 25 second-placed candidates in Tamil Nadu may have not been happy to see that the number of NOTA votes in their constituencies exceeded the margin of their defeat.
NOTA ranged from 1,025 — in Kaatumannarkoil where Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi’s Thol. Thirumaavalavan lost by 87 votes — to 4,994 in Avadi where AIADMK’s Pandiarajan came back after trailing for a considerable number of rounds to win by 1,395 votes.
Appavu of the DMK, contesting at Radhapuram, lost by 49 votes — the number of NOTA votes were 1,821.
Top take aways from this election
