CHENNAI: In March, about a month ahead of polling for Lok Sabha elections, DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had told DT Next in an exclusive interview that the alliance that his party was leading in the State would repeat the history of 2004.
As the results for the elections came in, his confident prediction has come true, with the INDIA bloc sweeping all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, a feat that the DMK-led alliance achieved in 2004.
Now, all eyes are on the crucial meeting of the alliance leaders on Wednesday morning to discuss the strategy to form the next government. Can leaders, including Stalin, repeat post-poll history as well and pull off what the elders like late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi managed to do two decades ago?
To recap, senior journalist K Karthikeyan of DT Next asked Stalin what the INDIA bloc’s chances were in the Hindi heartland which the BJP swept the polls in 2019. He replied: “The BJP ran a similar campaign in the name of ‘India Shining’ during the 2004 Parliamentary Polls. Surveys also endorsed them, and predicted a pro-BJP wave in the northern states. The opposition was criticised for not being united. However, the election results were in favour of the UPA, and the regime continued for the next 10 years. The results of the 2024 election would replicate 2004. History will repeat.”
Read the edited excerpts of the full interview here: Confident Stalin predicts 2004 repeat