The unexpected victory in 27 seats in Tamil Nadu ( DMK 17, Cong 8, VCK 1 and IUML 1) has come as a morale booster for the rulingDMK which is planning to transfer power to the younger generation as incumbent president and state chief minister M Karunanidhi at 86 years is finding it difficult to manage things.
A surgery for acute back pain earlier this year hasn’t made things easy for the octogenarian politician, who has been holding on strongly to the reigns of the DMK after the death of party founder CN Annadurai. This victory could help ease the transfer of power from Karunanidhi to heir apparent MK Stalin, who at 56 is being groomed to take over the party and the government in the state.
In the light of Karunanidhi’s inability to campaign exhaustively for the party and coalition candidates, the responsibility fell on Stalin to take up the propaganda work. The DMK’s victory — 17 of its 21 candidates won with huge margins and alliance partner IUML convincingly trounced AIADMK —has made Stalin a natural successor to his father.
The DMK has been a strong ally of the Congress since 2004 and has steadfastly stuck with the coalition. While the UPA frittered away at the national level with allies deserting the party, the DMK stood by its side. This could become a good bargaining point for the DMK. Party sources said Karunanidhi was likely topitch for at least seven ministries.
The elections boosted the vote share of the DMK-Congress coalition by nearly 10% to 48%from the previous 38% (DMK 24 and Congress 14). There was a slight decrease in the vote share of AIADMK from close to 30% to about 28%, which this time translated to nine seats.The results will upset the AIADMK coalition, dubbed “bundle of contradictions” as AIADMK, PMK and MDMK had divergent opinions on some key issues. DMDK founder Vijayakanth’s gamble paid off. Vijayakanth aimed at increasing his party’s vote share.
Given the voting pattern wherein DMDK achieved the lowest of 18,031 votes in Pollachi and the highest of 12,5,229, his party seems to have made an impact. On an average, his party’s vote share reached around 12%, a fairly significant number. His party seems to have made a huge dent in the PMK and MDMK vote share.
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