Jaya wave gobbles up 37 of Tamil Nadu's 39 Lok Sabha seats (Roundup)

Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK Friday rode on a Jayalalithaa wave to gobble up 37 of the state's 39 Lok Sabha seats to become one of the largest parties in the Lok Sabha.

The wave was such that there will be no Congress or DMK representative from the state in the Lok Sabha for the next five years as things stand now.

Many of the prominent candidates of these two parties as well as from others crashed to defeat. They included DMK's A.Raja, Dayanidhi Maran, T.K.S.Elangovan, T.R. Baalu and Congress' Karti P.Chidambaram, son of union finance minister P.Chidambaram, E.V.K.S.Elangovan and others.

MDMK's candidates including its leader Vaiko, candidates from the two communist parties and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also lost.

However PMK's Anbumani Ramadoss contesting from Dharmapuri and Bharatiya Janata Party's Pon Radhakrishan from Kanyakumari were the two victorious survivors. Both the parties are in alliance.

Even as the initial trends started coming in, AIADMK party cadres started their victory celebrations at the party headquarters here.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who is also the AIADMK supremo, told reporters: "It is a historic, unparalleled, unprecedented victory without any alliance. I would like to thank all those who worked for the victory."

She also conveyed her best wishes to the BJP's Narendra Modi, who is set to become the next prime minister, and said her party would act as a responsible political party.

"We are the third largest party and we will act as a responsible political party," she said, adding she hoped that the new government at the centre would be friendly towards Tamil Nadu.

AIADMK leader C.Ponnaiyan told IANS that the results "are as per our expectations". "In fact, we were sure of winning all the 39 seats. Further, this is also the first time the party fought the Lok Sabha elections on its own."

According to him, the AIADMK government has implemented several welfare schemes that reached the poor which in turn has resulted in the party being victorious.

DMK president M. Karunanidhi said he accepted his party's defeat "with bowed head" but noted his party had seen "defeats and also mega victories earlier" too.

He also conveyed his party's wishes to Modi for the BJP's "massive nationwide electoral victory".

The state unit of the Communist Party of India (CPI) lauded all the victorious candidates.

In a statement issued here, the CPI also hailed Jayalalithaa for her party's victory.

According to the Election Commission, the AIADMK had logged a vote share of 44 percent as compared to the DMK's around 23 percent.

A Congress member told IANS this is the first time that the state has not returned any Congress member to the Lok Sabha.

Incidentally, the DMK will also be absent in the Lok Sabha this time around. Last time it had 18 members.

"The AIADMK has done extremely well. The party seems to have bettered its own expectations," Ramu Manivannan, professor of political science in the University of Madras, told IANS.

"People seem to agree with the views of Jayalalithaa on various issues advocated strongly by her like the Cauvery river water sharing, Mullaperiyar dam dispute with Kerala, attacks on Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka and others," he said.

Manivannan said the AIADMK may not be part of the new government at the centre, but Jayalalithaa will certainly be in a position to influence the policies of the new government.

He said the DMK's poor show may not be due to the infighting between M.K. Alagiri and M.K. Stalin, the sons of Karunanidhi.

"The party has not fared well in northern Tamil Nadu where Alagiri has no influence. His influence is only confined to southern parts of the state," Manivannan said.

People feel the DMK has not espoused the state's cause as strongly as Jayalalithaa has done, he said.