BackAIADMK decimates DMK, Congress in Tamil Nadu
Of the 39 seats, Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa's party won 37, while BJP and Paatalli Makkal Katchi won one each
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Chennai: Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won 37 out of 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu and decimated its main rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won two constituencies as it cruised towards power at the Centre under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
“I would like to thank the people of Tamil Nadu for this massive and unprecedented victory," said Jayalalithaa, chief of the AIADMK. “Good welfare and government schemes have led to the victory. We have already released the manifesto and will strive to do things mentioned it."
“I wish the new government (at the Centre) well and hope it will be friendly to Tamil Nadu," she added.
The DMK had renominated former telecom ministers A. Rajaa nd Dayanidhi Maran, who are suspects in the case relating to irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008, to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Tamil Nadu.
The reverses are a loss of face for the DMK, which with Congress and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, won 27 out of 39 seats in the last general election.
Raja ran for re-election from the Nilgiri reserved constituency and Maran from Central Chennai.
Central Chennai has been a citadel of the Maran family since 1996, represented by former Union minister Murasoli Maran and after his death by his younger son Dayanidhi, who won the seat in 2004 and 2009.
DMK chief M. Karunanidhi conceded the party’s loss and congratulated Narendra Modi, under whose leadership the BJP won a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha.
“I respect the verdict and accept the defeat," he said. “My congratulations to Modi."
BJP state president Pon Radhakrishnan won from Nagercoil by a margin of 100,838 votes and alliance partner Paatalli Makkal Katchi’s Anbumani Ramadoss won in Dharmapuri.
In Tamil Nadu BJP partnered with five regional parties, including Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and Murmalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), which did not win any seats.
Raja lost to AIADMK’s C.Gopalakrishnan by a margin of 104,940 votes. Maran lost to AIADMK’s S.R Vijayakumar by 46,123 votes.
That DMK did not win even one seat shows the “pathetic state" to which it has been reduced, M.K. Alagiri, former union minister and elder son of M. Karunanidhi, told a Tamil news channel. He was expelled from the party in March for violating party discipline.
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