Chennai

Ammazing victory: In a closely fought election, AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa led her party to a spectacular win, proving exit polls wrong

That AIADMK needs no alliance to come to power has been clearly demonstrated by party supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who single-handedly led the party to a historic victory in the May 16 Assembly election. With this win, Jayalalithaa, who won from RK Nagar with a margin of nearly 39,000 votes, will serve as Chief Minister for the sixth time in Tamil Nadu.
Illustration by Varghese Kallada
Illustration by Varghese Kallada
Updated on: 

Chennai

This triumph has given AIADMK the unique distinction of becoming the first party in the state to win an election without an alliance with any of the major parties. The party will also set a record of coming to power for the seventh time in the state, and most significantly, Jayalalithaa has broken the anti-incumbency trend in Tamil Nadu after three decades (32 years after MGR’s win in 1984), with this consecutive victory. 

Jaya’s triumph has bucked all trends and disproved a majority of the exit polls that DMK would be the popular choice of the people this time. Self-declared mother of the masses, the electorate media too proved their child-like devotion by not taking into account the charges of corruption, flood damage or her limited public appearances, and instead, showed their faith in brand ‘Amma’ and all it stands for. 

The trends during the counting process, which initially started out as a neck-to-neck fight, soon veered towards AIADMK which consistently stayed 25 seats ahead of the pack. And despite the fluctuating numbers, once the first 100 seats were crossed, AIADMK maintained its lead. 

The entire credit of AIADMK’s victory belongs to Jayalalithaa for her calculated and strategic decisions, be it alliance formation, seat allocation, the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol condition for allies, devising the campaign strategy and preparing the manifesto. 

Even other AIADMK leaders conceded that, “Jayalalithaa planned and prepared everything, we just had to contest the election.” At every stage, she proved that she clearly understood Tamil Nadu and its people better than her competitors who will remain knocked off the radar for quite some time to come. 

MLAs meet: 

The AIADMK MLAs meeting will be convened at the party headquarters in Royapettah on Friday at 5 pm. In a statement, party supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa asked all the AIADMK MLAs to participate in the meeting without fail.

CLEAR MAJORITY

  • 120 seats won by AIADMK of the results declared for 206 constituencies.
  • 7th time the AIADMK has been elected to power, creating a record in Tamil Nadu.
  • 32 years on, AIADMK once again retains power for the second consecutive term.
  • 6th time Jayalalithaa will take the oath as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

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