The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : DMK front sweeps polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

DMK front sweeps polls

By V. Jayanth

CHENNAI, MAY 13. The seven-party Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) swept the polls in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, winning all 40 Lok Sabha seats at stake.

In what the Opposition leaders called "a lesson" to the "autocratic, anti-people AIADMK regime", the electorate voted overwhelmingly in favour of the DPA, with some of the frontline leaders winning by a thumping margin of over two lakhs.

The verdict, described in cricketing parlance as a "whitewash", drew immediate demands for the resignation of the Jayalalithaa Government, which the Opposition leaders claimed, lost its mandate to govern.

On an average, most of the DPA candidates won by over one lakh votes, the margins falling slightly in the Vanniyar belt of north Tamil Nadu, which meant the Rajnikant factor had little impact on the outcome, and the prestigious Periyakulam constituency, where the AIADMK's T.T.V. Dinakaran lost by just over 20,000 votes. Ms. Jayalalithaa's Andipatti Assembly constituency falls under Periyakulam.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and DPA patriarch, M. Karunanidhi, who was very confident of this victory from the very beginning, expressed "complete satisfaction" with the massive mandate for his alliance and against the AIADMK. He has called a meeting of the DPA leaders for Saturday morning and a DMK executive meeting for the evening.

From the initial stage of counting, it became obvious that an anti-incumbency wave was sweeping the State and the DPA candidates notched up early leads.

Except in Periyakulam, where it was low, they surged ahead to romp home victorious.

The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, G.K. Vasan, thanking the people for the "overwhelming mandate", expressed the hope and confidence that he could persuade the DMK leadership to join a Congress-led secular government at the Centre.

While the first opinion poll for the State projected five seats for the AIADMK-BJP combine, the exit poll by NDTV raised the number to eight. But in the end, the vote surpassed all expectations to wipe out the ruling combine. The AIADMK had 11 members and the BJP four in the dissolved Lok Sabha. Prominent among the BJP's losers are the Union Minister, Pon Radhakrishnan (from Nagercoil), and the State president, C.P. Radhakrishnan (from Coimbatore).

Prominent among the critics of the AIADMK and its leadership is the Union Minister and BJP leader, Su. Thirunavukkarasar, who blamed the defeat on not just "anti-incumbency" but the "autocratic behaviour of the Chief Minister." He contrasted the cohesive Opposition alliance and the AIADMK-BJP combine, in which there was complete lack of coordination.

Late in the evening, the AIADMK general secretary, Jayalalithaa, in a statement bowed to the people's verdict, even while underlining the fact that it was a parliamentary election.

The Tamil Nadu wave swept through Pondicherry too, taking the Pattali Makkal Katchi to its maiden victory in the Union Territory. Its candidate won by a margin of over 60,000 votes.

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