Chennai: BJP Tuesday conquered the final frontier when its star candidate Suresh Gopi emerged victorious from Kerala’s Thrissur amid Congress’ continued victory march in the southern state, as the neighbouring Tamil Nadu saw the DMK-led bloc humbling its rivals.
In Andhra Pradesh, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu made a spirited comeback when he led the NDA towards a stunning victory in the Assembly polls, with his party winning 83 seats and leading 51 in the 175-member state Assembly. The TDP, in the company of allies BJP and Janasena Party, took on the mighty YSRCP.
TDP’s allies also put up a good show, as the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP was reduced to a paltry 12 seats, in comparison to the 151 it won in 2019. It had nothing to smile vis-a-vis Lok Sabha performance as well.
An anguished Reddy said he failed to understand the reason for his party’s debacle in the assembly polls despite implementing several welfare measures “without any trace of corruption”
In Dravidian heartland Tamil Nadu, DMK trounced archrival AIADMK and the BJP, which had fought the April 19 Lok Sabha polls with a newfound vigour under an aggressive K Annamalai, a former IPS officer. Incidentally, the state BJP chief himself could not make a mark in Coimbatore, the western industrial hub and emerged runner-up to DMK’s Ganapathy Rajkumar.
DMK and its allies were on way to score a perfect “40/40”, leading in all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry segment.
DMK President and Chief Minister MK Stalin, who led the party’s charge, would repeat the feat of his father and late DMK president M Karunanidhi, who steered an opposition alliance that included Congress to the perfect 40 in 2004. UPA-I came to power then, defeating the late AB Vajpayee-led NDA.
The BJP had a lot to cheer as it made good gains Telangana, a Congress ruled state where the national party had comed to power last year. Incidentally, Congress had trounced BJP in Karnataka assembly polls last year.
BJP had won 25 seats out of the total 28 in Karnataka in the 2019 polls, and it fought one phase of the elections in the state this year under the cloud of sexual abuse allegations against ally JD(S)’ candidate from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, who has been since suspended. BJP won 17 seats and victors included former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Union Minister Shoba Karandlaje and Tejasvi Surya.
Prajwal Revanna, arrested over allegations of sexually abusing several women, lost from Hassan.
Congress, which had one member in the outgoing House, bettered its tally and won from nine segments.
The BJP, which fell short of predicted numbers nationally, had something to take solace from its Kerala show. Suresh Gopi, on whom the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had shown much hope, did not disappoint as he became the saffron party’s first elected MP from the southern state.
He defeated candidates from the CPI and Congress.
While Gopi garnered a total of 4,12,338 votes, CPI’s VS Sunilkumar had to make do with 3,37,652, according to the EC figures.
Congress’ senior leader and MP K Muraleedharan settled in the third position with 3,28,124 votes, it said.
Kerala saw another Congress show, with party leader and outgoing Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi retaining the seat with a massive margin of 3.5 lakh votes against Annie Raja of CPI, Congress’ INDIA bloc ally elsewhere. Party nominee Shashi Tharoor won his fourth term from Thiruvananthapuram, defeating BJP pick, union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
Of the total 20 seats in the state, Congress won 12 and was leading in another two, while its allies IUML (2), KEC and RSP, both with one seat each, added to the UDF kitty. Ruling CPI (M) had to contend with the solitary Alathur seat.
In Tamil Nadu, DMK president Stalin was visibly overjoyed with his party-led bloc’s performance, as senior leaders including A Raja (Nilgiris), Kanimozhi (Thoothukudi) and TR Baalu (Sriperumbudur) romped home with good margins.
He dedicated the party’s show (22 seats) to the late Karunanidhi, which came a day after his birth anniversary. The DMK chief also said there was an anti-Modi wave in many states.
BJP’s ‘money power’ and ‘abuse of power’ did not work in LS polls, he said.
Congress-ruled Telangana saw honours shared between the national party and its saffron rival, as both were on way to win eight seats each of the total 17. K Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS came a cropper while AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi retained his traditional Hyderabad seat.
In the process, both Congress and BJP bettered their 2019 poll show, with the former more than doubling its tally from the three MPs in the outgoing House. BJP won four seats in 2019 from the state.
Congress won from the two union territories in the region–Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
PTI
