Chennai: The ruling DMK-led Front is heading for a landslide win in an encore of its 2019 show as its candidates are leading in 38 of the total 39 seats in Tamil Nadu as counting of the votes polled in the April 19 elections to the 18th Lok Sabha progressed on Tuesday, amid tight security.
PMK nominee Ms Sowmya Anbumani, who is the wife of PMK President and Rajya Sabha MP
Dr Anbumani Ramadoss--also a former Union Minister--is leading in party's stronghold of Dharmapuri.
As a candidate of BJP's key ally, she is testing her electoral fortunes for the first time and was leading by a margin of 4,800 votes against her DMK rival A.Mani, the only seat where the DMK is likely to face a reverse.
Though Ms Sowmya has been leading right from the start and the vote margin kept increasing, the gap narrowed in the last two rounds, as the contest is heading for a tight finish.
According to the Election Commission update at 3.00 pm, the DMK led alliance was leading in
38 seats in the State, while the main Opposition AIADMK Front and the BJP, heading another
front, are facing their second successive drubbing in Lok Sabha polls after coming a cropper in
2019.
The BJP drew a blank as an ally of the AIADMK, which also performed badly at the hustings
winning a solitary seat in 2019.
None of the candidates of the the AIADMK and the BJP, which had contested 32 and 19 seats respectively, could win even a single seat this time.
While the DMK is leading in 21 seats, its alliance partners, including Congress is leading in nine seats, while VCK, CPI, CPI(M) in two seats each and MDMK and IUML in one seat each.
The Congress has extended its lead to nine seats, after its nominee and sitting MP B.Manickam Tagore, after trailing initially against V.Vijay Prabhakaran, who is the son of late DMDK Founder Vijayakanth and facing his maiden electoral battle as AIADMK's ally, was leading by more than
5,000 votes as the lead kept changing after every round in what is seen as a roller-coaster contest.
As both the Congress and DMDK candidates at involved in a neck and neck race, Vijay Prabhakaran's mother and Vijayakanth's wife Premalatha offered prayers at the memorial of her husband at the party office in the city, praying for her son's victory.
Meanwhile, this is the second successive Lok Sabha poll victory for the DMK-led Front under the leadership of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K.Stalin, who had led the alliance to a similar thumping victory five years back.
The 2019 Lok Sabha win was the first for the DMK after Mr Stalin became the Party President following the death of his father and DMK Patriarch M.Karunanidhi in August 2018.
Buoyed by the win, Mr Stalin led DMK to a resounding win in the 2021 Assembly polls and became the Chief Minister for the first time and it followed it up with victories in the Local and Urban Local body polls and Erode Assembly bypoll.
And this trend now continued in this year's Lok Sabha elections, having retained its alliance parties intact as part of Opposition INDIA alliance at the National level.
Almost all the prominent candidates of DMK and its allies have established unassailable leads.
All the sitting MPs of the DMK, Congress, VCK and the Left parties are leading in their respective constituencies.
Among them were DMK's former Union Ministers Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), T R Baalu (Sriperumbudur), S.Jagathrakshagan (Arakkonam), A.Raja (Nilgiris-R), Mr Stalin's sister Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi), Congress nominees Karti Chidambaram (Sivaganga), who is son of former Union Minister P.Chidambaram--all seeking re-election from the same seat they had won in 2019.
A prominent new face--Durai Vaiko, son of Rajya Sabha MP and MDMK General Secretary Vaiko and MDMK Principal Secretary is also leading in Trichy seat.
Key BJP candidates, including party State President K.Annamalai (Coimbatore), former Telangana Governor and Puducherry Lt.Governor Ms Tamilisai Soundararajan (Chennai South), Union Minister L.Murugan (Nilgiris-R) are trailing behind DMK nominees, while former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan is trailing behind Congress nominee Vijay Vasanth, who is the son of late MP H.Vasanth Kumar in Kanniyakumari.
Ousted AIADMK leader O.Panneerselvam, also a former CM, is trailing behind IUML nominee in Ramanathapuram.
As the counting indicated a sweeping verdict for the DMK, jubilant party cadres, including women, danced to the beating of drums and celebrated it by bursting crackers and distributing sweets at DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam in the city.
Counting also began for the lone seat in the adjoining Union Territory of Puducherry, where sitting MP and Congress candidate V.Vaithilingam is leading against BJP's A.Namasivayam. AIADMK is in the third spot.
It may be noted that of the total 40 seats (39 in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry), the DMK Front won a total of 39 seats and the AIADMK one seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while the BJP drew a blank.
