Ruling party allies’ vote share hits rock bottom

In the recently concluded election for 38 Lok Sabha seats, in the state, AIADMK managed to win only a single seat in Theni. The overall vote percentage obtained in the elections was just 18.49 percentage which is lower than the 2004 Lok Sabha election percentage of 29.77 percentage, where the party did not win even a single seat.

The historically low vote percentage obtained by the party drew widespread criticism not just outside the party but also within the party.

However, the votes obtained by AIADMK alliance partners are even worse than the AIADMK itself. DMDK, PMK and BJP, the key alliance partners performed way below their expectations.

According to the data released by Election Commission (EC), North Chennai DMDK candidate Alagapuram Mohanraj, who contested with the help of AIADMK, got the least votes in AIADMK alliance. He obtained just 1.29 lakh votes.

Similarly, PMK candidate for Chennai Central constituency, Sam Paul secured 1.47 lakh votes and came second from bottom among the votes obtained by allies. DMDK candidate in Tiruchy constituency, V Elangovan, obtained 1.61 lakh votes.

Though there were sitting MLAs from AIADMK in the Lok Sabha constituencies, the allies had put up a dismal show. For instance, in North Chennai constituency Royapuram is one of the Assembly constituencies which is held by state Fisheries Minister, D Jayakumar.

Though Jayakumar worked for Alagapuram Mohanraj, the alliance candidate could not even cross 1.5 lakh votes. There were reportsbefore the election that Jayakumar had diverted all his party cadres and functionaries to work for his son Jayavardhan,who contested in South Chennai constituency and the results have proven it.

Even the voting percentage of the AIADMK allies have dipped when compared to the previous elections.

For instance, the DMDK obtained 2.19 percentage which is their lowest ever votepercentage ever since the party was founded.

Similarly, BJP which obtained 5.5 percentage votes in 2014 Lok Sabha elections was able to obtain just 3.66 percentage in the recently conducted Lok Sabha elections.