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The success of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the Lok Sabha Election 2014 can be attributed to a carefully conceived poll strategy and welfare schemes implemented to boost agriculture and industry in Tamil Nadu. The party has not only emerged as the frontruner in the state, but has also become the third largest party in the Parliament going by the current trend.
J Jayalalithaa, who was the first to launch the Lok Sabha election campaign in the State, used “Peace, Prosperity and Progress” as the slogan for her campaign. During the campaign, not only did she come down heavily on the UPA government's policies, which impacted the economy and fostered high inflation among other things, she also explained how her Government introduced schemes that have helped people of Tamil Nadu to tackle rising prices.
N Ram, chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd, publisher of The Hindu and other publications, says the Public Distribution Scheme, non-corrupt governance, health care and others initiatives have helped the party.
C Ponnaiyan, former finance minister of Tamil Nadu and a senior leader of AIADMK said that the Jayalalithaa government, on the one hand has been focusing on welfare schemes such as free rice and laptop. On the other, it has been working on development programmes including infrastructure development in primary and industrial sectors.
Some of the other measures to address high inflation include low-cost canteens, low-cost vegetable shops, low-cost pharmacies and others.
In food grain production, Tamil Nadu has delivered an output of 101.51 lakh metric tonne in 2011-12, compared with 88.75 lakh metric tonne in Gujarat. During 2013-14, Tamil Nadu produced 103 lakh metric tonne food grains, Jayalalithaa said during her campaign.
While her whole campaign was against the UPA and the DMK, she also stopped a while to compare Tamil Nadu and Gujarat growth models. Tamil Nadu is third in terms of high GSDP, while Gujarat is fifth. In terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow, Tamil Nadu has seen an inflow of Rs 15,252 crore during 2012-13, whereas it was a meagre Rs 2,676 crore in Gujarat during the same period, she said.
An important indicator of economic output, GSDP (at constant prices) stands at Rs 4.28 lakh crore, positioning Tamil Nadu as the second largest State economy.
These numbers have reflected in the Lok Sabha election.
Even as the final results are yet to be announced, of the 37 seats (status known for 37 out of 39 constituencies in the State) the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is leading in 35 seats by grabbing 44.3 per cent of the vote. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, AIADMK won nine of the 23 seats it contested, cornering 22.91 per cent in the vote.
Though the scam-hit DMK managed to grab 22.7 per cent of the vote, it still did not emerge as the front-runner in any of the seats. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the party managed to get 25.12 per cent of the total votes.
All the DMK's star candidates, including A Raja, T R Baalu, S Jagathrakshakan, T K S Elangovan and others are trailing. The Party is also expected to lose the Madurai seat, which was in the spotlight after DMK leader, former Union Minister and M Karunanidhi's son M K Alagiri was expelled from the party.
He also asked his supporters to work against the DMK candidate. Though he didn't openly say he was supporting a particular party, the buzz is that he cast his lot with the NDA.
The other interesting trend is NOTA managed to grab 1.4 per cent of the total votes, higher than what communist parties have been able to get.
The BJP, which emerged as the second largest party in the state, and its alliance partners together grabbed 18.1 per cent of the total votes.
