The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government appears to be firmly in control of the state’s Lok Sabha election results, with a lead in 38 of the 39 parliamentary seats. DMK led by MK Stalin contested the general election as part of INDIA’s opposition bloc.
In the 2019 elections too, the DMK has swept all but one seat, with the only winner being OP Ravindranath, son of chief minister O Panneerselvam, of the AIADMK.
The BJP is hoping to make inroads into the state and try to end the proud Dravidian proclamation that the Lotus “will never bloom” in the state. Although the BJP may have failed to convert its popularity into seat wins, going by the counting trends, the party is seen securing second place in at least 10 constituencies, including Coimbatore, Chennai South and Chennai Central.
First, the BJP crossed the 10% vote share mark in Tamil Nadu and has so far registered 10.21%.
The main opposition, AIADMK, is likely to suffer a drop in votes. Its ally, the DMDK, has done well in Virudhunagar, with the party pitting Vijaykanth’s son V Vijaya Prabhakar against the BJP’s Radhika Sarathkumar. The AIADMK is facing difficulties in electing a strong leader, as most of them prefer to sit out the elections and save their electoral expenses for the upcoming Assembly polls.
BJP’s ally Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) is leading in Dharmapuri stronghold. BJP is contesting in 23 seats in Tamil Nadu, the rest of which are in PMK, Maanila Tamil Congress, etc. AIADMK contested in 32 seats, giving five seats to DMDK and one each to smaller parties PT and SDPI.
“Many voters sitting on the fence have approved the state government and CM Stalin’s policies, programs and governance. This has made a difference to the DMK-AIADMK vote gap. Of course, the split between TTV Dinakaran and Panneerselvam may have affected the AIADMK’s performance. The BJP’s performance is on the line demand. This proves that the BJP’s approach to Tamil Nadu is inappropriate,” said political analyst N Sathiyamoorthy.
Tamil Nadu has voted on April 19 for the Lok Sabha polls after weeks of fierce campaigning and heated debates, and an unprecedented battle of passion for the BJP to gain a place in the Dravidian land in 2024.
TRENDS IN MAIN CONSTITUENCIES
In Coimbatore, DMK continued to advance and the margin between BJP state president K Annamalai and DMK candidate Ganapathy P Rajkumar, which was around 3,000 about half an hour ago has widened and now the difference is 11,909. DMK’s A Raja was ahead with an undisputed 76,110 votes and BJP’s L Murugan was second and AIADMK’s D Logesh Tamilselvan was third.
The main opposition party, AIADMK which is leading in just two seats (Namakkal–S Tamilmani and Kallakurichi–R Kumaraguru) is now trailing its rival DMK.
BJP’s ally PMK (Sowmiya Anbumani) is leading in Dharmapuri with 16,516 votes and DMK’s Mani A is in second place.
AIADMK’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam’s V Vijayaprabhakaran is leading in Virudhunagar with 7,352 votes and prominent Congress leader B Manickam Tagore is following him. BJP’s R Radikaa, a popular actress is at the third position.
IAS officer-turned-politician Sasikanth Senthil (Congress) is leading in Tiruvallur by a great margin of 98,246 votes.
AIADMK’s ally DMDK candidate K Nallathambi is in second place, followed by BJP candidate Pon V Balaganapathy.
In Erode, where the AIADMK is pinning its hopes on its candidate Aatral Ashok Kumar trailed DMK’s KE Prakash by 44,351 votes.
DMK’s star candidates Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi), TR Baalu (Sriperumbudur), Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), Tamizhachi Thangapandian (South Chennai) are leading in their respective constituencies.
DMK allies including Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga) of the Congress party and Marxist party candidate Su Venkatesan (Madurai) have a decisive lead over others.