DMK-Congress Alliance Enjoys Upper Hand in Tamil Nadu, Say Experts

All the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu will go to polls in the second phase of elections on 18 April.

File image of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and DMK President

(Photo: PTI)

The southern state of Tamil Nadu, may well play a deciding role in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, having as many as 39 seats.

Speaking to BloombergQuint, experts opined that the DMK-Congress led alliance is poised with an upper hand ahead of the AIADMK-BJP led alliance in the state.

GC Shekhar, Associate Editor, Outlook said that the DMK has learnt from his mistake of 2014 of not allying with a national party. “The DMK-led alliance may well win 30 seats,” he said adding that the absence of Modi wave unlike 2014, will also help the party.

Senior journalist Kavita Muralidharan also predicted more than 30 seats for the alliance, adding that the AIADMK will give more importance to assembly bypolls, in 18 seats, which will take place along side the general elections, as that will decide the ruling dispensation in the state.

“In the last election Jayalalitha was projecting herself as a potential PM candidate. It won’t be easy for AIADMK to scale down from that level,” she said.

Narayanan Lakshman, a senior journalist at The Hindu pointed out that the TTV Dinakaran faction’s chances will also adversely impact the AIADMK. “Dinakaran will spoil AIADMK's chance in about six Lok Sabha seats,” he said, even as he refused to make any predictions on the number of seats that the two rival alliances might get.