TAMIL NADU LOK SABHA ELECTIONS 2024: QUICK FACTS AT A GLANCE

Drawing from five exit polls, a thumping victory for the DMK alliance has been predicted with 36 seats, while the BJP is anticipated to open its account in the state with two seats and one for the AIADMK. The Tamil nationalist Naam Tamilar Katchi's entry makes it a four-way contest with the anti-DMK-Congress votes split into three.

This is the first general election for both the BJP and the AIADMK since their alliance break up. Who among the two will get the second spot? One must wait and watch.

The Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu were held in the first phase of the seven-phased elections on April 19. All 39 seats in the state went to polls simultaneously.

Vote counting for 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, the lone seat in Puducherry, and the Vilavancode bypoll seat (Kanyakumari district) will begin at 8 am on Tuesday.

The DMK-led front is confident of another victory (a sixth in its line of triumphs since 2019) despite the aggressive campaign put up by the BJP to gain a foothold in the Dravidian citadel. It is keen to repeat its 2019 performance when it won 38 of the 39 seats in the state. The lone setback came in the southern Theni district when the AIADMK-led alliance, which also comprised the BJP then, managed to win a solitary seat.

Barring the 2014 victory of BJP veteran Pon Radhakrishnan from the Kanyakumari segment, the saffron party won in Tamil Nadu, since 1998, only when it aligned with either the AIADMK or DMK.

BJP’s K Annamalai (Coimbatore), DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), A Raja (Nilgiris), Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi), BJP’s L Murugan (Nilgiris), Tamilisai Soundararajan (South Chennai), former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (Ramanathapuram), Congress party’s Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga) and AIADMK’s J Jayavardhan (South Chennai) and AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran (Theni) are among the prominent candidates.