The AIADMK, which will begin a constituency-wise review of the Lok Sabha election results on Wednesday, is expected to examine its weak spots in the State.
Though the party can draw consolation from the fact that there was an about one percentage-point rise in its vote share when compared to 2019 (which has been pointed out repeatedly by its general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami), the organisation can ill afford to ignore the reality of erosion.
The decline in the average figure of votes polled per contested Lok Sabha constituency was about 30.4% this time, when compared to its performance in 2019. For instance, in 2024, the AIADMK, which secured 89,37,836 votes from 34 constituencies, bagged on an average 2,62,878 votes per seat.
However, in 2019, the party’s average figure per constituency was 3,77,607, as the total number of votes polled was 83,07,345 in 22 constituencies. In fact, the drop in 2019 vis-a-vis 2014 was about 18%. This means that the rate of decline this time is higher than what the party registered five years ago. The BJP, the PMK, the TMC (Moopanar) and the New Justice Party, which were the AIADMK’s partners in 2019, contested as a bloc separately this time.
Of its total of about 89.4 lakh votes, the party netted 32,61,540 votes in northern districts. Even in this region, its performance in two Chennai seats was below par. The region’s average was 2,96,504 votes as the party contested in 11 seats.
In the western districts of the State, the score was 29,33,317 votes in nine constituencies with an average of 3,25,924 votes, which is the highest for any region.
Despite the party not getting any seat, the western belt remains its stronghold.
At the same time, what should not be glossed over is that the party, which grabbed all the Assembly seats in Coimbatore district, finished a distant third in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency with the difference between its nominee and the winner (DMK) being 3.31 lakh votes. The BJP’s State unit president, K. Annamalai was the runner-up with around 4.5 lakh votes.
In the central districts or the Cauvery delta, the party’s showing was marginally lower than its performance in the north. In the delta, the AIADMK got 13,14,674 votes from five seats, and its average was around 2.63 lakh.
Though the Dravidian major put up its nominees in nine constituencies in southern districts, it received about 14.3 lakh votes with an average of 1.59 lakh votes per seat. Besides, five out of seven seats where the party forfeited its deposit were in the south.
It is for this purpose that Mr. Palaniswami is going to review the results constituency-wise, says a veteran member who hails from the western belt.
