Lack of focus on West seats resulted in DMK’s debacle

Chennai

Foremost among the reasons would be the party’s indifference towards western pockets from where the AIADMK got a chunk of its seats. It is no overstatement to say that the party had conceded defeat even before the polling day if one recalls the ploy of DMK leaders who believed that they could make good their weakness in the west by sweeping the south. Not only did the south disappoint them by delivering fewer than what they expected, but they also suffered a rout in the west, where, except in the Nilgiris, they won only one seat each in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Salem (won  in Singanallur, Madathukulam and Salem North), while gifting away over three dozen easily to the rival. Notably, DMK suffered the near white wash even when the Gounder backed Kongu parties went alone (one led by Best Ramasamy supported DMK) and BJP brought Prime Minister Modi to eat into the right wing and conservative minded western voters.

Perhaps, the DMK has only itself to blame, for, it never produced a charismatic leader like a Sengottaiyan of AIADMK, to capture the minds of modern day voters. Even the ministerial allocations for the western region was abysmally low to western TN, compared to AIADMK which had not less than three ministers in Erode and Coimbatore in particular. “Indeed, we overestimated south and failed to strengthen our organisation in Kovai, Tirupur and Erode. Even Salem has crumbled after Veerapandi Arumugam,” said a party senior. Secondly, contrary to popular perception, the PMK and PWF have affected both DMK and AIADMK’s prospects only in 24 segments (the alternative fronts votes against the victory margin). Wherever the PMK or PWA fielded popular candidates, like CPM’s Vasuki in Madurai west and PMK’s K Balu in Ulundurpet, DMK got knocked out.

Last but not the least, some poor candidate selection and internal bickering that was not put to rest, had also cost DMK dearly. Kunnam and Sirkazhi are classic examples. Though the votes secured by PMK were double the victory margin, candidature of Killai Ravindran of Pichavaram was not accepted in Sirkazhi DMK till the end. The same reason will also apply to Kunnam, where Durai Raj, a close associate of A Raja, was the nominee.

Winning 89 seats, over 50 per cent of seats it had contested, DMK has a creditable performance. DMK men who accuse Congress for pulling them down cannot be blamed as the latter has only won eight out of 41, including a few winnable seats.