Political parties in Tamil Nadu have started making calculations in the run-up to the next year’s Assembly poll in the State.
Early this week, Chief Minister and the ruling DMK president, M. K. Stalin “fixed a target” of 2.5 crore votes for the formation headed by his party. He had also pointed out that in the 2021 Assembly election, the DMK-led front netted about 2.09 crore votes. Besides, their count was that 1.86 crore persons had been directly getting benefitted out of the DMK regime’s welfare measures.
The ruling party’s traditional adversary, the AIADMK, is also banking on the performance put up by it and its key ally, BJP during the 2024 Lok Sabha election. At that time, the two parties headed separate coalitions, which, put together, obtained around 41% of votes polled. In terms of absolute figures, they had secured close to 1.8 crore votes against the DMK-led alliance’s 2.05 crore votes with a vote share of 46.9%.
The fledgling Tamila Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) , which will be entering the electoral fray for the first time next year, is said to be basing its strength on its belief that on the ground that it has at least one supporter in every ration card out of a total 2.28 crore ration cards in the State. The total number of beneficiaries including those aged below the voting age of 18 years is approximately seven crore, according to the data available with the State Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection department.
