Tamil Nadu : Seats and vote share : Election Backgrounder 16
The AIADMK’s best performance in Tamil Nadu has been in the 1977 and 1998 Lok Sabha polls.
In 1977, the AIADMK won 18 of the 20 seats it contested, garnering 30.59 per cent votes while in 1998 the party bagged 18 of the 22 seats it contested, cornering 25.89 per cent votes. In 1984, 1989 and 1991, the AIADMK won all the seats it contested (12, 11 and 11 respectively) although its vote share hovered between 17 and 18 per cent. In contrast, the General Elections of 1996 the AIADMK would rather forget—the party lost all the ten seats it contested and got only 7.85 per cent votes. The party’s performance in the 1980 Parliamentary Elections was only marginally better. The AIADMK got 25.38 per cent vote share but won only 2 of the 24 seats it contested. In the 1999 Parliamentary Elections the party won in 10 of the 24 seats it fought, cornering 25.68 per cent votes.
The other major party in Tamil Nadu, the DMK, would rather not remember the 1989 and 1991 General Elections when the party drew a blank although it contested 31 and 29 seats respectively, gathering 26.66 and 22.69 per cent vote share.
The outcome of the 1977 and 1984 Parliamentary polls was only marginally better, with the party winning 1 out of the 19 seats it contested in 1977 and in 1984 winning 2 out of the 27 seats it tried its luck on. For the DMK the 1980 and 1996 Parliamentary polls can be considered their finest hour. In 1980 the party took a 23.01 per cent vote share
winning all the 16 seats it fought while in 1996 the party repeated its performance, winning all 17 seats with a 25.68 per cent vote share. In the last Lok Sabha elections the DMK bagged 12 out of the 19 seats it contested (vote share 23.13 per cent).
For the Congress its worst fears came true in 1996 and 1998 when the party drew a complete blank, losing all the 29 and 35 seats it contested respectively. The 13th Lok Sabha polls in 1999 saw a modest improvement in the party’s political fortunes when it pocketed 2 of the 11 seats it contested ( vote share 11.10 per cent). All this is a far cry from the heady days between 1977 and 1991. In 1977 the Congress won 14 out of 15 seats it contested; in 1980, 20 out of 22; in 1984 25 out of 26; in 1989 27 out of 28 and in 1991 all the 28 seats.
Among regional parties in Tamil Nadu, the decline in the political graph of the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) has been the most sharp. In the 1996 General Elections, the TMC won all the 20 seats it contested collecting 27.05 per cent votes but two years later, in the 1998 General Elections, the party won only 3 of the 20 seats it fought, its vote share declining to 20.19 per cent. In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls the TMC drew a complete blank although it contested 27 seats, its vote share hitting an all-time low of 10.21 per cent. The PMK entered the political arena in 1989 but did not win a single seat until the 1998 Parliamentary polls when the party pocketed 4 seats. In the 1999 General Elections, the PMK bagged 5 out of the 7 seats it contested, garnering 8.21 per cent vote share. The MDMK entered the electoral race in 1996 but could not open its account. However, in 1998 the party won 3 of the 5 seats it fought and took its tally to 4 out of 5 in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls with a 5.95 per cent vote share.
In contrast, the BJP’s political graph in Tamil Nadu has risen steadily. The party did not win a single seat in the 1984, 1989, 1991 and 1996 General Elections, but its electoral fortunes turned around in the 1998 Parliamentary polls when it opened its account, winning 3 of the 5 seats it contested, cornering 6.86 per cent votes. In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls the BJP did better and won in 4 seats out of the 6 it contested, taking its vote share to 7.14 per cent.
(Release ID :1355)