Tamil Nadu polls: DMK alliance leads in 111 seats, AIADMK 95

CHENNAI: Early trends in counting show the DMK in the lead in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election results. The party is leading in at least 123 seats, while the ruling AIADMK is ahead in 93 seats. In the 234-seat House, a party needs at least 118 seats to win the election. The AIADMK, which has been in power since 2011, hopes to extend its hold on the state for another term. The opposition DMK, on the other hand, is hoping a mixture of incumbency and instability within the ruling party will allow it to return to the helm of affairs after a decade.

This election is the first in the state without two of Tamil Nadu’s towering political figures, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. The gap they left in the political arena has given rise to other fronts over the last few years.

While the National Democratic Alliance, led by AIADMK, and Secular Progressive Alliance, led by DMK, hold sway over 70-80 per cent of the voter base, the others in the fray this election included an alliance led by TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) and one by actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM).

The state witnessed a 72.81 per cent voter turnout in the single-phase elections on April 6. Held amid the secone wave of Covid-19, the Election Commission ordered strict guidelines for campaigning, voting, and on the results day. Today, the mood is expected to be sombre as the poll body has banned public gatherings outside the counting centres and said no victory processions will be allowed.

All the exit polls have predicted a clean sweep for the DMK, with one even giving the alliance up to 195 seats.