Sun rises on Fort St George

82-year old Muthuvel Karunanidhi is set to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu once again. He will be anointed for the fifth time as the head of the State, but for the first time ever in the history of Tamil Nadu politics, the DMK will lead a minority government, supported by the Congress, the PMK and the left parties. It has been a decisive victory for the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance that has romped home with 162 seats, leaving Amma way behind with 70 seats.

Lessons learnt

But what’s more interesting are the many twists and turns that we have seen in Elections 2006. In the run-up to the polls, the DPA hoped to repeat the spectacular success that it tasted during Lok Sabha 2004, when it knocked the AIADMK, 40 to none. But it received its first jolt when Vaiko’s MDMK walked out of the alliance and joined hands with Amma. The elections results this time, however, have cut Vaiko down to size. His MDMK has managed to win only 7 seats proving that he is still only a fringe player in Tamil Nadu. Thol Thriumavalavan also has some soul searching to do. His Dalit Panthers have hardly made an impact on the electorate, winning just two seats despite its presence in the State for the past one decade. Even Dr Ramadoss needs to introspect on his party’s performance. Hitherto, he has been cleverly jumping onto winning alliances, but somewhere, his grip on the Vanniar community seems to slip and the need to reach out to larger votebase seems imminent.

Captain Vijaykanth

The big story of victory is that of actor Vijaykanth and his DMDK. Although he has managed to win only one seat (Vridachalam where he contested), the party has made a huge dent on the winning margins across the State. DMDK has made significant inroads in North Tamil Nadu, PMK’s bastion and more importantly, it has eaten into vote shares of parties across the board. For instance, K Anbazhagan, treasurer of the DMK, won his homeground Harbour constituency by an embarrassing 400-odd votes. A DMDK candidate managed to eat into both the DMK’s and the ADMK’s share. In all, an 8.33% voteshare across the State for a first timer is truly commendable.

Moral of the story

Much has been said about the “arithmetic versus chemistry” that titled the voter in favour of one alliance. Also, there has been considerable analysis of the populist promises of rice and colour TVs that both Karunanidhi and Jaya offered. But for me, it’s not the rice, the colour TV or the poll alliance that ticked. The big winner, for me, was clearly the voter of Tamil Nadu. The state had a 70% voter turnout – a clear affirmation of the belief in democracy and in the process of adult franchise. Amma’s ouster is also a loud announcement that people prefer change irrespective of performance of the Government. Change, it seems, is a constant need among the electorate of Tamil Nadu.