CHENNAI, JUNE 4 :   In a record shattering effort, the ruling DMK-led Front swept the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry winning all the 40 seats as counting of the votes polled in the April 19 elections to the 18th Lok Sabha progressed on Tuesday, amid tight security.

It was for the first time a Front has turned out with 100 per cent victory in Lok Sabha polls in the State’s electoral politics history, routing the Opposition fronts headed by the AIADMK and the BJP, which drew a blank and suffered their second successive defeat at the hustings following the 2019

LS debacle.

The DMK led Front, has won seven seats for which results were declared so far and was leading in the remaining 33 seats with massive margins. While the DMK won five seats, its allies the Congress and the CPI(M) won one each till 8.00 pm.

It is 40 out of 40 for the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), which
is also part of the Opposition Congress-led INDIA bloc, as Congress nominee is
leading by a big margin in the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Union Territory of
Puducherry.

It was a triple delight for the victorious Front as Congress candidate
is on the path of victory in the byelection to Vilavancode Assembly seat which fell
vacant following the resignation of Congress MLA Ms.S.Vijayadharini, who joined
the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls.

After it won 39 of the 40 seats in 2019, this time it turned out to be a complete
sweep, disproving the theory of much talked about anti-incumbency factor, thereby
creating a new record in the Tamil Nadu’s electoral politics history, by winning all
the seats for the first time.

Reacting to the DMK Front’s win, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
M.K.Stalin termed it as as historic victory as it was achieved against the misuse
of official machinery and money power.

The fact that the BJP could not even win a majority on its own proved that there was
a strong wave against it in the country.

Stating that he was dedicating the victory to his late father and DMK Patriarch M.Karunanidhi,
with the Lok Sabha results coinciding with the culmination of his 100th anniversary fete, Mr Stalin
told reporters that he would be leaving for New Delhi tomorrow to take part in the meeting of
the Opposition-led INDIA bloc which had won a stunning victory with over 235 seats, proving the
pollsters wrong.

Mr Stalin said people of the country has given a fitting lesson to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi
for his remarks of bringing in changes to the Constitution.

Even before the poll process was announced, the DMK had started ticking all the
boxes correctly, retaining all its allies, finalising the seat sharing agreements
sticking to same formula adopted in 2019, and emerging victorious, with many
of the Front’s candidates leading by very big margins.

None of the candidates of the the AIADMK and the BJP, which had contested 32 and
19 seats respectively, could win even a single seat this time, and drew a blank.
The AIADMK and PMK, which is an ally of the BJP, thanked the voters for their support
in the polls.

While the DMK is leading and set to win in 22 seats, its alliance partners, including Congress
is poised to win nine seats, while VCK, CPI, CPI(M) two seats each and MDMK and IUML
one seat each.

Congress is set to win the lone seat in Puducherry, making it 40 out of 40 for the DMK Front.
Meanwhile, this is the second successive Lok Sabha poll victory for the DMK-led Front under the
leadership of Mr.Stalin, who had led the alliance to a thumping victory five years back winning all
but one of the 40 seats.

The 2019 Lok Sabha win was the first for the DMK after Mr Stalin became the Party
President following the death of his father and DMK patriarch M.Karunanidhi in
August 2018.

Buoyed by the win, Mr Stalin led DMK to a resounding win in the 2021 Assembly polls
and became the Chief Minister for the first time and it followed it up with victories in the
Local and Urban Local body polls and Erode Assembly bypoll.

And this trend now continued in this year’s Lok Sabha elections, having retained its
alliance parties intact as part of Opposition INDIA alliance at the National level.

All the prominent candidates of DMK and its allies have established unassailable leads
pushing their rival party candidates to the brink.
(ED : PICK UP SUITABLY FROM EARLIER SERIES).(UNI)