RISING SON
■ DMK set to form next TN govt for the sixth time winning at least 126 seats ■ All other parties like MNM, NTK, AMMK fail to get a single seat
CHENNAI: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is all set to form the next government in Tamil Nadu, for the sixth time, winning/leading in at least 126 seats in the 235-member legislative assembly. The DMK alliance which includes the Indian National Congress, Left parties and VCK is poised to win in over 159 constituencies until reports last came in. Rival AIADMK alliance managed to secure around 75 seats.
DMK president MK Stalin, who registered his third consecutive win from Kolathur constituency, will soon be sworn in as Chief Minister in a low-profile ceremony considering the pandemic, sources close to the leader said. The counting of votes for polls held on April 6 commenced at 8.30 am with postal ballots. While there were minor hiccups reported in some constituencies including Anna Nagar, Harbour, Viralimalai and Madurai, counting in most constituencies commenced on time.
The DMK alliance, which managed to secure a slender lead even during counting of postal votes, gradually widened the gap. After the first few rounds of counting, the AIADMK front led in around 100 seats in what appeared to be a closed contest between the Dravidian rivals. However, during the course of the day, more seats went in favour of the DMK combine eventually leading to the magic number of 117 by early evening when Stalin began to receive congratulatory messages from national leaders. DMK, which contested in 173 seats, won majority by winning 126 seats on its own, thus surpassing its previous total of 89 seats obtained in the 2006 Assembly election. While the Indian National Congress put up an impressive show winning at least 16 of the seats contested, minor alliance partners VCK and MDMK won four seats each while CPI and CPI(M) obtained 2 seats each. Other minor parties which contested in DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’ symbol also managed to win a seat each.
The AIADMK which contested in 179 constituencies won/led in 65 constituencies while alliance partners PMK obtained 5 seats and BJP obtained 4 seats. Puratchi Bharatham Katchi, one of the alliance partners of AIADMK which contested in ‘two leaves’ symbol also registered a win from Kilvaithinankuppam constituency.
While AIADMK Convenor O Panneerselvam managed to sneak past DMK’s Thangatamil Selvan by a margin of 8,000 votes, AIADMK’s co-convenor Edappadi K Palaniswami thrashed DMK’s T Sambath Kumar by a margin of more than 70,000 votes. In the completely bipolar contest, all other parties including Kamal Hassan’s MNM, Seeman’s NTK and TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK failed to get a single seat. Kamal Hassan who contested from Coimbatore South was leading over his rival BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan until the last rounds and lost by just over a thousand votes.
Meanwhile, NTK which contested alone in the polls, increased its vote share significantly to around 5 per cent in the election.
AMMK leader Dhinakaran too put up brave fight against former Information and Publicity Minister Kadambur Raju but managed to finish only second. Vijayakant’s DMDK failed to get even a single seat for the fourth straight election with its vote percentage dipping below 0.5 percent. A total of 4.57 crore voters out of total 6.26 crore electorate cast their votes to elect the 16th assembly taking the total voting percentage to 72.78 percentage.
BIG WINNERS
Among the ones who emerged successful in this election, the victory of a few of the candidates was particularly noteworthy for the import is has on the State’s politics in the coming days:
Udhayanidhi Stalin, Chepauk-Tiruvallikeni
DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin secured his maiden Assembly election victory from Chepauk-Tiruvallikeni constituency. Udhayanidhi, one of the star candidates of the DMK who went on a whirlwind tour of the State, won by a margin of over 69,000 votes, more than his father, MK Stalin, who had stretched his lead to only over 51,000 votes at 9pm Sunday. The DMK youth wing secretary whose 'AIIMS' brick campaign created a buzz in the campaign, so much so that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to it in his campaign speech, posted a photograph on his official Twitter handle where he was seen ‘gifting’ the brick to his victorious father at his home in the company of his sons and nephews and nieces. Early Sunday evening, Udhayanidhi, accompanied by his relative and Central Chennai MP Dayanidhi Maran, collected his certificate of victory from the returning officer of the constituency.
MK Stalin, Kolathur
DMK president and chief-Ministerial candidate MK Stalin won the Kolathur constituency for a third time, trouncing his AIADMK rival candidate Aadhi Jayaram with a whopping margin of more than 51,000 votes. Stalin first won Kolathur in 2011, following a pitched battle with AIADMK’s Saidai Duraisamy by a slender margin of less than 3,000 votes. He contested again from Kolathur in 2016 and defeated JCD Prabhakaran of the AIADMK by around 38,000 votes. The high-profile constituency was one of the few seats with the highest number of contenders, most of whom lost their deposits.
Duraimurugan, Katpadi
It was literally a nail-biting, heart-thumping day filled with twists and turns before DMK general secretary Duraimurugan finally emerged victorious from Katpadi constituency by a slender margin of 746 votes. In the initial period, it looked as if the party veteran was heading for an upset defeat: his main rival, V Ramu of the AIADMK, led the first 10 rounds to garner a total lead of around 6,000 votes. But from that point, Duraimurgan clawed back to garner a total lead of around 6,000 votes. But from that point, Duraimurgan clawed back till the final 25th round. Adding further drama, five EVMs malfunctioned and votes registered on them could be counted after all the 25 rounds were completed. In the end, Duraimurugan received 85,150 votes to Ramu’s 84,394.
EV Velu, Tiruvannamalai
The election campaign did not start on a bright note for DMK satrap EV Velu, whose residences and educational institutions his family runs were searched by central agencies on suspicion of hoarding cash to be distributed to voters. However, in the end, it did not seem to matter to the strongman from Tiruvannamalai, who is part of Stalin’s inner circle and is sure to land a plum post in the coming cabinet. Facing a BJP candidate from the AIADMK-led alliance, Velu received 1,37,876 votes while the former managed to get only 43,203 votes. This victory, by a margin of 94,673 votes, is the second highest recorded in the State in this Assembly election.
Edappadi K Palaniswami, Edappadi
There were no doubts about his victory, but the margin with which AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami secured his victory from his home constituency was sparkling. This was the fifth time EPS won the State Assembly election, and the third consecutive one. In the last election in 2016, he won with a margin of 42,022 votes against PMK’s N Annadurai – the DMK candidate was pushed to the third spot. This time, the gap widened by more than double when he received 1,63,154 votes to trounce the main rival, DMK candidate Sampath Kumar, who managed to get on 69,352 votes, enabling him to register an emphatic victory with a margin of 93,802. However, he may not be in a mood to savour his success to the fullest, as his government was unseated by the DMK.