PMK founder S.K. for violating “coalition dharma” during 2021 assembly elections. The recent criticism of Ramdas may not be valid especially if the vote share of the party and the AIADMK-led alliance is any indication in select crucial districts. He had said that the party should have won at least 15 seats, but its allies did so.
Even at the macro level, the difference between the average votes of the AIADMK and the PMK’s votes is not very wide. The former received 1,53,91,055 votes in 191 constituencies, with an average of 80,581 votes per constituency. On the other hand, the PMK, which was allotted 23 seats, garnered 17,58,774 votes, an average of 76,468 votes per constituency. The difference between the figures of AIADMK and PMK was around 4,000 votes, which was understandable considering the strengths and weaknesses of both the parties.
The alliance also included the BJP, which lagged behind its allies. The national party averaged around 60,684 votes, nearly 20,000 votes less than the AIADMK’s per constituency.
Districts at a glance
If one takes a closer look at the two districts where the AIADMK and PMK are said to be strong, there was not much difference between the vote share of the PMK and the alliance. Take the case of Ariyalur, which has two constituencies – Jayankondam and Ariyalur. The coalition lost in both and had a vote share of 44.12%. PMK in Jayankondam with its spokesperson K. Balu, where the party’s vote share stood at 43.48%. Similarly, in Dharmapuri, where the PMK won two seats, including Pennaram, where party president GK Mani won, its vote share was 49.52% as against the alliance’s 50.8%. The AIADMK emerged victorious in the remaining three constituencies of the district.
More or less the same trend is also in Villupuram district where PMK got one out of two seats and AIADMK won two seats. The remaining four seats went to the DMK’s account. The vote share of the PMK stood at 40.34%, while the vote share of the AIADMK-led front was marginally higher at 41.58%.
But Salem paints an ironic picture. In the district, the AIADMK-led front won all the seats, including Mettur and Salem (West) where the PMK won. However, the gap between Front and PMK was substantial with around 4.5 percentage points. The former got around 51% as against PMK’s individual tally of 46.55%. This can be attributed to the lack of support for the PMK among non-Vanniyar communities, argues a district leader.
Confirming Dr. Ramdas’s argument, a second line leader of the PMK said that his party was one of the factors in the AIADMK winning 66 seats, though the party was in power for 10 years. But the contribution of PMK was not adequately responded by the coalition leader.
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