Chennai: Bucking the national trend that favoured the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the DMK-Congress and its allies on Thursday led in 36 out of the 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.
The results are a big blow to the ruling AIADMK as its number of members in the Lok Sabha will drastically go down. The AIADMK is in alliance with BJP. However, together, the parties failed to put up a good show in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu has 39 Lok Sabha seats. However, voting was held in 38 seats after the Election Commission cancelled the poll in Vellore on the grounds of allegations of money play.
The fight in Tamil Nadu was between the AIADMK-led front comprising the BJP and other regional parties and the DMK-led front consisting of the Congress, CPI, CPI-M and others.
The star candidates of DMK like Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, former union ministers TR Baalu, A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran were in the lead, including prominent Congress candidates Karti P Chidambaram, H Vasanthakumar, S Jothimani and Su Thirunavukarasar.
Eight hundred and twenty two candidates were in the fray from Tamil Nadu. This was the first major election in the state without the two stalwarts – J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, under the leadership of the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK had contested on its own in 39 seats and won 37.
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Meanwhile, in Puducherry, the Union Territory which voted in the second phase of Lok Sabha election, has favoured Congress over the All India N R Congress (AINRC). Ve Vaithilingam is winning from the lone seat in Puducherry, where 18 candidates contested.
Voting for the 2019 Lok Sabha election took place in seven phases from April 11 to May 19.
Source: Zee News