The rejection of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu and the mixed verdict in the Assembly by-polls indicate that the voters have given vent to their displeasure over the political developments in the State since former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016. It appears they used the elections as an opportunity to set the State in order.
The AIADMK front’s defeat has to be seen as a rejection of not just its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but its ties with the Paattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK).
Vociferous attacks
The PMK founder S. Ramadoss had been vociferous in his attacks on Jayalalithaa and had even demanded that she be banned from contesting polls and lodged in prison. Until a month before he aligned with the AIADMK, he and his son Anbumani Ramadoss were highly critical of the current AIADMK leadership, even questioning their competence to govern. After all this, when the AIADMK leaders went around seeking votes for the PMK candidates, it appears to have struck a raw nerve with the voters, especially the AIADMK sympathisers.
Likewise, the decision to give four seats to the weakened DMDK, a party Jayalalithaa said she was ashamed of having aligned with in 2011, too had led to grumblings within.
The compromises that the AIADMK made in aligning with the BJP, which had no roots in Tamil Nadu, had also left many party cadre and sections of voters bitter. It was the same BJP that Jayalalithaa had famously taken on with the ‘Lady Vs Modi’ slogan five years ago and won 37 seats.
Clear direction
While giving the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) 37 of the 38 seats that went to polls, the voters have also clearly showed the direction in which the politicians should proceed from here, by giving a split verdict in the Assembly polls.
They have given 13 Assembly seats to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), clearly telling its leader M. K. Stalin that he needs to be on probation for two more years before he gets to don the mantle of chief ministership.
The verdict also serves as a warning to the AIADMK government to mend its ways and focus on governance for the rest of its term.
Long way to go
As of now, voters have also conveyed to Kamal Haasan of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and Seeman of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) that they have a long way to go before they could be regarded as an alternative to the Dravidian parties.
The rout of T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) could be seen as not just an indication that the AIADMK’s core votes are more or less intact, but also the people’s disapproval of a larger role for the Sasikala family in the political firmament.
Essentially the verdict reinforces the importance of the two Dravidian majors in the Tamil Nadu political scene.
Both the DMK and the AIADMK should realise the electorate’s aspirations and rise to the occasion.