LS polls : All set for vote counting in TN tomorrow

CHENNAI: The state is all set for counting of votes polled in the single phase elections held on April 19 to elect 39 members to the 18th Lok Sabha from Tamil Nadu, on Tuesday morning, amid tight security.

Along with the Lok Sabha polls, bye-election to the Vilavancode Assembly seat, which fell vacant following the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Ms S.Vijayadharani, was also held.

Exit polls by various agencies have predicted a big win for the ruling DMK-led Front in the elections.

A total of 69.72 per cent of the total 6.23 crore voters, including 3.17 crore women and 3.06 crore men, had cast their ballots in this democratic exercise.

Counting will be held in 43 centres, including three in Chennai, which was provided a three-tier security.

Apart from protection to the storage rooms provided by three levels of security personnel, including armed personnel from the Central Armed Security Forces and also the local police, representatives of political parties has constantly kept close vigil on the strong rooms following some reports of malfunctioning of CCTVs in some places, which was however, set right immediately.

Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said 38,500 officials will be involved in counting of votes and the entire process will be videographed.

As has been the usual practice, counting of postal ballots will be taken up first after which the seals will be removed from EVMs and the votes polled in it would be counted.

Initial trends is likely to be available after the first two hours of counting and the entire results are expected to be announced by tomorrow evening/night.

In the single phase polling, being held in the first phase as part of the seven-phase elections, a total of 1.58 lakh Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used in the state.

The electoral fortunes of 950 candidates--876 men and 74 women--candidates, including 609 Independents, which had contested the polls would be known tomorrow.

This elections witnessed a hotly contested battle among the four major parties which included, the Fronts led by the ruling DMK, main Opposition AIADMK and the BJP, besides the Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK), which contested alone as usual.

Those in the fray included key candidates of leading parties including the DMK, which had fielded 10 incumbent MPs and 11 new faces.

Among the sitting DMK MPs and prominent candidates included former Union Ministers Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), DMK Parliamentary Party Leader and T R Baalu (Sriperumbudur), A.Raja (Nilgiris-R) and S.Jagathrakshakan (Arakkonam).

Othey key contestants included Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K.Stalin's sister, Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi), Tamizhachi Thangapandian (South Chennai), Kalanidhi Veerasamy (North Chennai), D M Kathir Anand (Vellore), K. Selvam from Kancheepuram (SC) and C.N.Annadurai from Tiruvannamalai.

Dayanidhi Maran is the son of late DMK veteran Murasoli Maran, Kanimozhi is the daughter of late DMK Patriarch M.Karunanidhi and sister of Mr Stalin, Ms Tamizachi Thangapandian is the sister of Tamil Nadu Minister Thangam Thennarasu, Kalanidhi Veerasamy is the son of former DMK Minister Arcot N Veerasamy, Mr Kathir Anand is the son of DMK General Secretary and State Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan.

Among the prominent new faces included Arun Nehru, son of Tamil Nadu Minister K.N.Nehru and former AIADMK MP T.M.Selvaganapthy, who had quit the party and joined the DMK, from Perambalur and Salem respectively.

The sitting MPs from Congress included Karti P.Chidambaram (Sivaganga), who is the son of former Union Minister P.Chidambaram, who had won from the seat on seven occasions, former TNCC President M.Krishnasamy's son M.K.Vishnu Prasad (contested from Cuddalore this time after being elected from Arni in 2019), late MP H.Vasanth Kumar's son Vijay Vasanth (Kanniyakumari), S.Jothimani (Karur) and Manickam Tagore (Virudhunagar), besides alliance party candidates that included VCK Founder Thol Thirumavalavan (Chidambaram-R) and D.Ravikumar (Villuppuram-R), CPM's Su.Venkatesan (Madurai) and CPI's K.Subbarayan (Tiruppur), IUML's Nawaz Kani (Ramanathapuram).

The prominent new face is Durai Vaiko, son of Vaiko and MDMK Principal Secretary who contested from Trichy in his maiden polls.

The new faces in BJP and AIADMK fronts included BJP's alliance candidate Sowmya Anbumani, wife of PMK President and former Union Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP now, BJP State Unit Chief K.Annamalai, Royapuram Mano of AIADMK and BJP Legal wing leader Paul Kanagaraj (North Chennai),Vijayakanth's son V.Vijaya Prabhakar and actor R.Sarath Kumar's wife Ms Radhika Sarathkumar (both Virudhunagar).

Sowmya is also the sister of Mr Vishnu Prasad, who is the son of former TNCC President

M.Krishnasamy.

Also in fray is Tamilisai Soundararajan who had quit as Telangana and Lt.Governor of Puducherry and returned to active politics to serve the people by re-joining the BJP, former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan (Kanniyakumari) and first timer and present Union Minister L. Murugan (the Nilgiris-Reserve).

Tamilisai, who lost to DMK's Kanimozhi in Thoothukudi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, contested from South Chennai constituency this time.

Ousted AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam contested from Ramanathapuram constituency as an Independent backed by the BJP.

The elections witnessed a no-holds barred contest in a four-cornered battle between the ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), which is also a key partner of the Opposition-led INDIA bloc at the National level, the AIADMK and the BJP fronts, apart from the NTK of Actor-director Seeman.

This is the first election faced by the AIADMK under the unitary leadership of its General Secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami after he took over the party's mantle with the support of the majority of the party members at the General Council meeting in 2022, after a protracted legal wrangle and getting the official recognition of the Election Commission as the sole party leader.

The GC meeting ousted O.Panneerselvam, also a former CM, for revolting against its decision to restore the party to the unitary leadership and insisted maintenance of status quo of dual leadership led by them.

The DMK-led Front, which has been winning all the five successive polls, starting from 2019, has managed to keep its flock together for the fifth year in a row, and is keen to repeat the 2019 performance when it won 38 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, the lone setback coming in the southern Theni district when the AIADMK-led alliance, that also comprised the BJP then, managed to win a solitary seat.

This time the alliance equations have changed especially in AIADMK, which had severed its ties with the BJP and walked out of the NDA after five successive losses--2019 LS polls, 2021 Assembly polls, civic body elections to the Rural and Urban local bodies and the Erode Assembly seat bypoll--all dominated by the DMK-led alliance which had stormed back to power in the State in 2021 after a ten year hiatus and its President M.K.Stalin became the Chief Minister for the first time.

While the DMK, heading the Front, contested in 21 seats (one more than in 2019) after its former ally IJK had quit and joined the BJP alliance, its alliance parties, the Congress contested in nine seats, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), CPI and CPI(M) two seats each.

The other partners, the MDMK led by Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko, Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) the Indian Union Muslim league (IUML) contested one seat each.

The DMK had retained the 2019 formula in seat sharing agreements with its alliance, by allotting the same number of seats and also the same constituencies held by their partners, except for swapping three seats held by the Congress, allotting Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai and Tirunelveli in place of Arni, Theni and Trichy seats.

The DMK front was bolstered with actor-politician Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) joining as an ally, but chose not to contest in this polls, while pledging his party's full support to the combine.

Kamal had termed his party's decision of not to contest this polls as a strategy and not a sacrifice, to enter the Parliament.

This is the first alliance venture by MNM after Kamal, who shared a close rapport with Stalin, founded his party in 2018 and has been contesting alone all along. Kamal also contested the 2021 Assembly polls from Coimbatore South but lost to BJP candidate Vanathi Srinivasan by a narrow margin.

On the other hand, the AIADMK after walking out of the NDA, tried to cobble up a formidable alliance, but only managed to rope in DMDK of late actor politician Vijayakanth as its key ally, along with some fringe parties.

The AIADMK contested in 32 seats, the DMDK, now led by Vijayakanth's wife Premalatha (5 seats), while Puthiya Tamizhagam and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) contested in one seat each.

In contrast, going by the number of parties in its fold, the BJP might claim it as a stronger alliance that has the formidable Vanniyar outfit Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) of Dr.S.Ramadoss, and the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) of former Union Shipping Minister G.K.Vasan, besides ousted AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) founded by another deposed AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, who is also the nephew of V.K.Sasikala, a close aide of late leader J.Jayalalithaa.

The BJP also has minor parties like IJK of Paarivendhar and Inthiya Makkal Kalvi Munnetra Kazhagam (IMKMK) of T.Devanthan Yadav, New Justice Party (NJP) of A.C.Shanmugam and Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) of John Pandian.

The BJP contested in 19 seats, PMK in 10, TMC in three, while AMMK two and the other allies in the remaining five seats.