Sections of functionaries and members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are engaged in discussions among themselves whether their party would have done better in the Lok Sabha polls without the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Pointing to the difference in the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls and Assembly byelections, a senior member says this only demonstrates a “popular disapproval” of the AIADMK’s tie-up with the BJP, the dominant constituent of the Union Ministry, whereas voters were not disinclined against the ruling party in the byelections. The “anti-Modi narrative” prevailed over everything else, he says. The party, which got a vote share of 18.5% in the Lok Sabha elections, received 38.2% in the bypolls to the 22 Assembly constituencies.
“What else can be the reason for the defeat of some of our parliamentarians such as M. Thambi Durai of Karur, P. Venugopal of Tiruvallur and C. Mahendran of Pollachi, who had all nursed their constituencies well?” asks a Minister.
However, a senior functionary of the AIADMK dismisses the line of thinking among some of his colleagues. “Had we contested alone in the Lok Sabha polls, we would have now found ourselves in a big soup as we would have rubbed the BJP on the wrong side during the election campaign. Eventually, such a stand would have only benefitted the DMK, considering that party’s alliance with the Congress. Besides, even if we had won an equal number of Assembly seats in the byelections, the Centre’s disposition towards us would have been different. Thanks to our alliance with the BJP for the Lok Sabha polls, we have been saved from all these situations,” says the functionary.