Fourth consecutive loss in polls leaves EPS in a spot

In the LS polls, the party has been relegated to fourth position in Kanniyakumari and to 3rd in 9 other constituencies

-  S MANNAR MANNAN

THE AIADMK under the leadership of Edappadi K Palaniswami is going through one of its worst phases in electoral politics, losing the fourth major election.

After the 2019 LS defeat, the party lost power to DMK in 2021 Assembly election and local body election the next year.

Rubbing salt into the wound, the party has been pushed to fourth place in Kanniyakumari and third in Chennai South, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Madurai, Nilgiris, Ramanathapuram, Theni, Tirunelveli and Vellore in 2024, a shocker for AIADMK supporters.

The party's vote share has also come down considerably in the 2024 Lok Sabha election compared to previous elections.

Despite contesting in 34 seats (SDPI and Puthiya Tamilagam contested in two-leaves symbol and DMDK contested in five seats), the party managed to get a vote share of 20.46%. In 2019 (in alliance with PMK, BJP, DMDK, and TMC), though the party contested only 20 seats, it managed to get only 19.39% of the votes. When AIADMK contested 33 seats leaving six seats to BJP in 2004, the party managed to get 29.77% of vote share, despite losing all seats.