Kochi: Too much hype about former top cop and techie K Annamalai cost the BJP heavily in Tamil Nadu where the saffron party’s arrogance to ignore the mite of AIADMK failed to pay the dividends in 39 seats, political analysts said.
A minnow in politics, Annamalai’s decision to call off ties with a party like AIADMK on trivial issues led to the saffron party’s debacle.
AIADMK and BJP contesting separately was a blunder decision for both the parties. Without the support of dravidian parties, winning a seat in Tamil Nadu is literally impossible for any party, be it BJP or Congress.
BJP’s plan to improve its rating by tarnishing the image of the ruling party by arresting DMK leaders accused of corruption made little impact on the voters.
However, it is commendable that the BJP-led NDA managed to get a vote share of 18.27 per cent against its target of 25 per cent without the support of AIADMK.
In the Southern part, it got an average vote share of nearly 22.27%. In Kanniyakumari, Pon Radhakrishnan polled 35.6% votes.
It was over 30 per cent in Tirunelveli and Ramanathapuram. In Madurai, the BJP got 22.38 per cent votes to push the AIADMK to third position.
NDA members Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Tamil Manila Congress (Moopanar) got less than 15% votes in Dindigul and Thoothukudi.
In Chennai Central BJP got 23.16% votes while in Northern Tamil Nadu it garnered 16.79% in 10 constituencies where its partner PMK has strong base. In Western Tamil Nadu, it did well in Coimbatore where state party chief Annamalai over 30 per cent votes.
PMK polled more than 30% votes in Dharmapuri. In Central Tamil Nadu, NDAs vote share in the seven seats was only 12.82%.
