CHENNAI: Amid the three-cornered contest in Tamil Nadu between DMK alliance, BJP alliance and the AIADMK, the loner Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) has secured third place in five constituencies.

Surprisingly, AIADMK and BJP trailed behind NTK in Kanniyakumari and Nagapattinam respectively. In Nagapattinam, the NTK candidate garnered around 30,000 votes more than the BJP candidate.

In Tiruchy and Kallakurichi, NTK performed well to secure third place and sent AMMK and PMK to fourth place, both part of BJP-led NDA. In Erode, Seeman’s party thumped GK Vasan’s TMC (Moopanar), another ally of BJP.

Before the polls, during the campaign, Seeman and BJP’s state party president K Annamalai were involved in heated exchanges. Seeman challenged the former IPS officer to a debate, but Annamalai brushed aside him and said that NTK was not BJP’s competition.

Despite the exact number of votes secured by parties in some constituencies were not released while going to the press, the total votes secured by NTK in all the 39 constituencies had crossed 20 lakh mark, which is around 3.5 lakh votes higher than the number of votes secured by the NTK in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In that election, the party garnered 3.90 per cent vote share.

Moreover, the party crossed one lakh mark in Tiruchy, Krishnagiri, Kancheepuram and Nagapattinam. In around five constituencies, NTK has secured close to one lakh votes.