DMDK looks to increase voteshare in 2011

CHENNAI: The DMDK is positioning itself as a rising sun in Tamil Nadu politics. The party hopes to garner at least 14% of the votes in the upcoming state assembly elections which could swing in favour of the party with which it aligns. A day after DMDK leader Vijaykanth asserted at the party's Salem conference that no outfit in the state could come to power without his support, party's presidium chairman Panruti K Ramachandran told TOI, "In the 2006 assembly elections, we got 8.5% of the votes and the vote percentage went up to 10.5 in the parliamentary elections. Now we hope to get at least 14% of the votes and this will help whichever front we decide to align with in the assembly polls."

Asked how his party supremo had made the claim that the DMDK would decide the winner of the assembly elections, Ramachandran, a key member of the regional outfit's think tank, said, "Even during the last parliamentary elections, DMDK was assessed as a game changer in Tamil Nadu politics". Actor Vijayakanth, busy with the shoot of his latest film Viruthagiri', for the first time on Sunday indicated that his party will align with the AIADMK or parties opposed to the DMK. "We are definitely not with the DMK on various counts like corruption, inefficiency and family rule," said Ramachandran, confident that the front to which the DMDK vote percentage is added will gain. On an electoral tie-up with the AIADMK, he said talks had not begun yet. "Only recently, the AIADMK constituted a committee to negotiate with other parties," he said.

A glance at the electoral records show that the DMDK secured 8.45% of votes in the 2006 assembly polls and won one seat out of the 232 it contested. The party lost deposits in 223 constituencies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the party contested in 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and Puducherry. It forfeited deposits in all the constituencies but secured 10.08% of the votes polled. It has shown at the very least, a confidence to contest from many constituencies.

A senior AIADMK leader was guarded when asked for his comments on Vijayakanth's statement. "This is not the proper time to support or oppose his point of view. Any statement from us at this juncture will only create an adverse situation".

"Vijayakanth's statement (that no party could come to power without his support) cannot to be taken seriously. Almost all junior parties say this kind of thing, sometimes at the national level too. The PMK does it all the time," said political analyst Cho Ramaswamy. On whether the DMDK would be a key player, he said: "The AIADMK needs him (Vijayakanth). Otherwise he will divide votes and help the DMK return to power".

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