After five years in the wilderness, AIADMK's star and former chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa stormed to power Friday for a third time in Tamil Nadu, crushing a corruption-hit DMK.
After five years in the wilderness, AIADMK's star and former chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa stormed to power Friday for a third time in Tamil Nadu, crushing a corruption-hit DMK.
In a sweep that few pundits had anticipated, the AIADMK-led alliance was on the victory lap in 196 of the state's 234 constituencies. A stunned DMK and its allies were set to get only 36 seats.
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Although DMK leader and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and his son and Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin would win, most ministers in Tamil Nadu were facing defeat, election officials said.
The AIADMK alone could get as many as 145 seats to give the party the numbers to form a government on its own.
A humiliated Karunanidhi lost no time in offering his resignation.
"It is a vote against the DMK and its family rule," political commentator Cho Ramaswamy said, referring to Karunanidhi and his siblings -- Stalin, elder son and cabinet minister M.K. Alagiri as well as daughter and Rajya Sabha member K. Kanimozhi.
Kanimozhi is in deep trouble over her involvement in the spectrum allocation scandal that has sent to prison DMK's disgraced former minister A. Raja. The scam has battered the DMK's image.
"The verdict is a total rejection of the one family rule of Karunanidhi," said AIADMK Rajya Sabha member V. Maitreyan.
AIADMK allies, including charismatic actor Vijaykant's DMDK and the two Communist parties, were ahead in around 50 seats, dealing a mortal blow to the DMK, one of India's oldest political parties.
Thousands of overjoyed AIADMK supporters and members, including a large number of women, gathered outside Jayalalithaa's heavily guarded residence shouting full-throated slogans hailing the actor-turned-politician.
There was plenty of drum beating. Many kilos of sweets were distributed -- and consumed.
As news of the impending victory spread, dozens of police officers and bureaucrats made their way to Jayalalithaa's residence. An informed source said that the new government would be sworn in May 16.
Fearing possible defeat in the wake of the spectrum scam, the DMK unleashed freebies to the electorate and reportedly pumped in vast sums of money. But nothing worked.
The DMK's main ally, the Congress, which has insisted on fighting no less than 63 seats, could win only 10 -- reaping a miserly six-seven percent of vote share.
While Health Minister and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad attributed the AIADMK sweep to "anti-incumbency", Home Minister P. Chidambaram's son Karti said actor Vijayakant's decision to back Jayalalithaa played a role in the DMK-Congress rout.
Aligning with the DMK, the Communists were set to win 15 of the 20 seats they contested. Vijayakant's DMDK was poised to win from 26 places.
The victory would make Jayalalithaa, a former actress whose mentor was AIADMK founder leader M.G. Ramachandran, chief minister for a third time. She was chief minister from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2006.
In 2006, the AIADMK won only 61 seats in a house of 234.
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