Congress springs shock, improves its strike rate
The Congress in Tamil Nadu lastly overcame the ‘strike rate’ hurdle confronted by it up to now Assembly elections (2011 and 2016) by successful or establishing leads in about 16 of 25 seats allotted to it by the DMK (on the time of going for print). The celebration additionally retained the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat for which a bypoll was held.
This works out to a hit rate of 64%, the best since 2006 and 2001, when it received over 50% of the seats allotted to it by the DMK and the AIADMK respectively. Coming on the again of robust negotiations with the DMK the place the celebration wished a ‘respectable’ variety of seats, the Congress thought-about the victory an enormous step ahead for it within the State. In 2011, the celebration bought 63 seats from the DMK however received solely 5, and in 2016, it received simply eight of the 41 seats allotted to it. Only in 2006, it managed to win extra seats — 34 of the 48 contested — than its present tally.
TNCC president K.S. Alagiri expressed happiness over the celebration’s efficiency. Speaking to The Puucho, Mr. Alagiri attributed the victory to the energy of the DMK alliance and unity amongst Congress staff.
“Everyone worked well in sync. Our cadre also worked very hard and there was genuine unity among everyone,” he mentioned.
Facing the BJP
In the 5 seats the place it was pitted towards the opposite nationwide celebration, the BJP, the Congress managed to ascertain leads in 4. The solely seat it misplaced was in a three-cornered and shut combat in Coimbatore-South, the place actor Kamal Haasan and BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan confronted off towards its candidate Mayura Jayakumar.
The celebration was comfortably positioned towards the BJP in Colachel, Udhagamandalam, Vilavanocde and Karaikudi. At Vridhachalam, the celebration’s Radhakrishnan trounced the DMDK’s Premalatha Vijayakant by an enormous margin. It additionally received the lone seat given to it in Chennai — Velachery, the place its chief Rahul Gandhi held an election rally.
While the Congress managed to ascertain leads in different seats the place it was pitted towards the AIADMK, it both misplaced or was trailing behind the AIADMK’s candidates in seven constituencies — Uthangarai, Sriperumbudur, Omalur, Melur, Kallakurichi, Srivilliputtur and Udumalaipettai.