‘Dynastic politics, no connect with youth led to DMK’s loss’

AS before long as betimes trends indicating licking for the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the Tamil Nadu gathering elections started rising on Monday, videos of workers removing tents and other arrangements at the party headquarters began circulating on social media. By late evening, DMK president MK Stalin conceded defeat and said his party would function as “an excellent opposition” in the state assembly.The DMK, which along with its allies, had swept the Lok Sabha polls two summers ago, lost the assembly polls to debutant Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), a party headed by actor-politician Vijay. The TVK won (or was leading in) 107 of the state’s 234 seats, the DMK was restricted to 60 while its arch rival AIADMK was third with 47 seats. Much to the ruling party’s chagrin, its chief Stalin himself lost to TVK’s VS Babu by a margin of 8,795 votes from the Kolathur seat, a seat he had been representing since 2011.“We bow to and accept the verdict of the people. Congratulations to the victors!” Stalin said in a long post on X.Recalling his government’s record over the last five years, Stalin highlighted the welfare schemes and infrastructure projects that defined his term.“In the past five years, we have created numerous projects and provided good governance to the people of Tamil Nadu. We have elevated Tamil Nadu in every way. In the electoral arena, we sought votes only by speaking of our achievements. We campaigned for votes to ensure the welfare schemes we delivered to the people would continue. I express my heartfelt thanks to all the people of Tamil Nadu who supported and voted for the secular progressive alliance led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam,” the DMK chief added.Political analysts maintained that the DMK, which harped sharply on Dravidian pride to target the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre over a range of issues, failed to effectively gauge the ground reality, especially anti-incumbency against several of its legislators, and more importantly, the rising popularity of actor Vijay.In the run-up to the April 23 assembly polls, Vijay-led TVK as well as AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami sharpened their attacks on the DMK, accusing the party of promoting “dynastic” politics. Though its not uncommon in Indian politics to have more than one member of a family holding key position in a political party, the “dynast” tag hit the DMK hard, political experts said.Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi, who is also the state’s deputy chief minister, won his election from Chepauk-Thiruvellikeni assembly constituency in Chennai. Udhayanidhi’s rise within the DMK as well as in the Stalin-led government — from being a youth welfare and sports minister in December 2022 to deputy CM in September 2024— in the last five years embolden rivals to target the DMK with dynastic party jab.Besides Stalin, who lost to his once close aid VS Babu of the TVK, many of his cabinet colleagues, including Ma Subramanian (Saidapet), RD Shekar (Perambur), and Tamilan Prasanna (Egmore) also lost the polls.Chennai-based political expert Ramesh Sethuraman cited the DMK’s failure to attract the aspirational youth and first-time voters, who felt the two Dravidian parties no longer represented their interests, cost the party dearly in the polls.“DMK had no plan for younger voters even though Udhayanidhi heads the party’s youth wing. This led to the fall out of DMK’s once impenetrable urban strongholds in Chennai,” he added.It is where the TVK captured the aspirational votes — youth and first timers — and Vijay positioning himself against the DMK. More than half of the TVK candidates aged below 45 as compared to average age of DMK candidates being 50.The opposition also attacked the DMK over issues of law and order, and women safety in Tamil Nadu.Sethuraman said: “DMK failed to address women’s safety issues, such as the Anna University incident, allegations of drug proliferation (illegal liquor, ganja and usage of drugs), and corruption.”The expert also said that the DMK’s failure to address some of its poll promises, including cancellation of NEET for medical admissions, also impacted the party’s prospects.According to DMK leaders, the internal party surveys showed high anti-incumbency for a large number of MLAs. However, the party did not replace sitting MLAs to prevent rebellion by senior leaders.Friction also emerged in the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance, with fallout between Stalin’s party and the Congress appearing in public on several occasions. Though the Congress settled for 28 seats under the DMK alliance, many in the party had publicly claimed it should contest no less than 42 seats. The strained ties claims became stronger after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did not share the stage with Stalin during his public campaign in Tamil Nadu.The DMK campaign hovered around alleged Hindi imposition by the Centre, insufficient funds given by the Centre to Tamil Nadu and discrimination to southern states through proposed delimitation to increase the Lok Sabha seats to implement reservation of seats for women.Paa Krishnan, noted political expert, said the DMK had unnecessarily kept provoking TVK and its chief Vijay, which led to increased sympathy towards the debutant party.“Though it favoured TVK, we should also remember that it affected DMK. The DMK also gave several conditions to TVK for holding their public meetings after the Karur incident. They caused enough hardship to TVK,” he added.Stalin, however, maintained that his party’s political journey would continue.“In my political public life, I have seen great victories; I have also faced defeats. Therefore, I am one who acts with the understanding that ideals and policies are what matter most, not just victories and defeats. Thus, the political journey of the DMK will continue without faltering,” Stalin said in his post.