Anti-incumbency wave sweeps AIADMK
It is for first time that an opposition combine has won all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, including the lone seat from Pondicherry.
An anti-incumbency wave swept away the AIADMK-BJP combine from Kanyakumari to Chennai in Tamil Nadu in the Lok Sabha polls, as people voted for the 'rainbow alliance' formed by the DMK, by bringing together all parties, which had a vote bank.
The wave was uniform across the state, including in the AIADMK bastion of Southern Tamil Nadu - as the Democratic Progressive Alliance candidates romped home with huge leads, the only exception being in Periyakulam, where AIADMK nominee TTV Dinakaran lost by over 24,000 votes.
From Nagercoil to Chennai, it was DPA all the way, banishing the AIADMK in the Lok Sabha for the second time. In 1996, the DMK-TMC combine won all 39 seats. However, the Congress, which was then in alliance with the AIADMK, had the solace of winning the Pondicherry seat.
In fact, it is the first time that an opposition combine, has won all 40 Lok Sabha seats, including the lone seat from Pondicherry.
It was just a repetition of the 1996 performance by the DMK, the only difference being that the party now has the PMK, Congress, MDMK, CPM, CPI and IUML with it.
Of the 29 seats announced so far, DMK has bagged 12, the Congress Seven, PMK three, MDMK, CPM and CPI two each and IUML with one.
DPA candidates are leading in another 11 seats.
Though the poll arithmetic seems to have worked, with the DPA constituents getting more than 52 per cent of the vote in the state, it was the anti-incumbency factor which saw the AIADMK-BJP combine winless.
When the DMK aligned with the Congress in 1980, the combine got 37 seats, leaving only two seats to the AIADMK.
The present results can be considered a reversal of the 1991 Lok Sabha polls as the AIADMK-Congress combine won 38 of the 39 seats, riding on a sympathy wave created by the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumpudur.
All the AIADMK-BJP heavyweights lost.
Though the AIADMK had fielded new faces, they did not pass muster with the electorate.