The big win in the three-cornered fight gives credence to the alliance’s ideological bonding strengthened by the common opposition to BJP.It also leaves AIADMK and BJP, former electoral partners, in doldrums to rethink their strategies before the 2026 assembly election.
While AIADMK’s unimpressive line-up failed to impress the electorate, BJP couldn’t do any better with its high-profile candidates like state president K Annamalai (Coimbatore), Union minister L Murugan (Niligirs) and former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan (Chennai South). Ousted AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam, who contested in Ramanathapuram as an NDA-backed independent, lagged behind DMK ally IUML’s K Navaskani by a margin of more than 1.6 lakh (yet to be announced).
The counting gave some anxious moments to many candidates. After leading initially, BJP’s Tirunelveli candidate and MLA Nainar Nagendran fell by the wayside and Congress candidate Robert Bruce won by more than 1.6 lakh votes. AIADMK ally and DMDK Virudhunagar candidate Vijay Prabhakar, maintained a lead over his Congress rival Manicka Tagore, who finally registered a thin margin of more than 4,000 votes. PMK’s Dharmapuri candidate and Sowmiya Anbumani (NDA) gave a tough fight to DMK’s A Mani before losing by a margin of 21,000 votes. At the end of counting, DMK’s Ganapathy Rajkumar was ahead of Annamalai by more than one lakh votes.
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Clearly, a divided opposition and a vitriolic anti-NDA campaign that centred on allegations of divisive-communal politics by BJP and Centre starving state of funds helped INDIA bloc’s success in TN. Stalin’s strategy to showcase his priorities of politics and governance helped win over the Tamil audience. In Puducherry, too, Congress candidate and sitting MP V Vaithilingam won, beating his BJP rival A Namassivayam by a margin of around one lakh votes.
As soon as the trends showed INDIA bloc leading in most of the constituencies, Stalin visited his father M Karunanidhi’s memorial on Marina beach in Chennai and paid his respects. Later in the evening, Stalin said, “I know my height,” repeating his father’s famous words when asked about his aspirations and probability of his playing a role at the national level.
Stalin will leave for Delhi on Wednesday morning to take part in the INDIA bloc meeting. He thanked his alliance leaders and cadres for their efforts “to defeat fascism and to safeguard democracy and the Constitution”.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the DMK-led alliance bucked the national trend to win 38 seats in TN, leaving only the Theni seat to the then united AIADMK in the company of BJP, and grabbing the lone Puducherry seat as well. With the 2024 Lok Sabha poll victory in TN, Stalin has pulled off a hattrick with his successes in 2019 and 2021 (assembly election) after taking over the DMK reins. Party colleagues and allies say the victory is a referendum for Stalin’s governance.
In the opposition camp, while AIADMK rejoiced its second position with an overall vote share of 20%, having contested 32 seats, the BJP was muted in its celebration, having lost all the 19 seats it contested.
The opposition contest and campaign centered on “exposing” DMK and Stalin with attacks on their failure to keep the pre-poll promises and practicing corruption and dynasty politics. The ‘DMK files’ (audio recordings of alleged conversations of some DMK functionaries), allegations of misgovernance, poor law and order, arrest and IT searches of senior ministers and charges of nepotism following the elevation of Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi failed to cut ice with the electorate.
Source Agencies
