The new players in Tamil Nadu—Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) and T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s AMMK—have failed to take off.
While expectations from Dhinakaran were high, his party polled a mere 5.25 per cent votes. Haasan, who challenged the DMK and the AIADMK and pitched himself as an alternative to the Dravidan majors, has managed to poll only 3.72 per cent votes.
“My party is just one year old. We do not have money power or muscle power. But we have polled more than three per cent votes. I thank the people who chose to vote for MNM. Now people know that we can deliver,” the actor-turned-politician told the reporters.
While the DMK swept the polls in the state with a massive mandate of more than 22 crore votes, the AMMK and the MNM seem to be fighting for the third place. There were hopes that Dhinakaran would spin some surprises, but his party failed to rise up to the occasion.
“I accept the people’s verdict with a bowed head,” Dhinkaran said in a statement.
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In fact, Dhiankaran drew huge crowds during his campaign and was expected to eat into the AIADMK votes. He was looked at as a spoiler of AIADMK’s prospects in many constituencies. However, Dhinakaran’s candidates were able to poll only 5.25 per cent votes, which is much less than the 30 per cent votes polled by the AIADMK and its alliance partners. Besides, the 18 MLAs who sided with him after revolting against Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami also lost their constitutional positions.
However, sources close to him say Dhinakaran is not likely to give up. His party had fared well in most of the constituencies in south and central Tamil Nadu.
MNM, fighting its first election, had a huge challenge before it as it was going against the established players. The party managed to score well in most of the urban constituencies.
MNM’ Mahendran played spoilsport for BJP’s Coimbatore candidate C.P. Radhakrsihnan as the former polled over 1.45 lakh votes while the AMMK polled only 30,000 votes. Coimbatore is considered a AIADMK bastion where the BJP too has a considerable vote bank. In yet another urban constituency – South Chennai—which houses a big chunk of the IT crowd in Tamil Nadu, MNM finished third with 1.35 lakh votes, thus spoiling AIADMK’s prospects.
