Chennai: Assiduously working for a grand victory through the years, DMK President M K Stalin single handedly steered his party through the long night,sweeping the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu after back to back poll debacles.
The DMK-led front, which also comprises Congress and the IUML, is set for a clean sweep and is poised to win 37 of 38 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu with the lone seat appearing to go to the AIADMK.
The DMK lost the 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
DMK appears set to win in all the 19 constituencies it fought and its allies MDMK, VCK (Villupuram), KMDK,and IJK who fought on the Rising Sun symbol of the Dravidian party are also likely to win in view of the huge margins, taking the Dravidian party's total tally to 23 seats.
Allies Congress is set to emerge victorious in 8, IUML and VCK (Chidambaram) one each and CPI and CPI(M) two each. Seeking the early bird advantage, 66-year-old Stalin launched DMK's village level outreach programme (Ooratchi Sabai) across Tamil Nadu as early as January, with the slogan "let us meet the people, tell them and win over their hearts." The campaign, which saw coverage of over 12,000 village panchayats, was a pretty unconventional affair with Stalin interacting with people in the village square, often seated on a platform under the shade of a tree. Meticulously, he sought to address all the local issues and promised resolving them once voted to power.
He also made it a point to meet people during morning walks, visit local markets and parks to interact with people.
Apparently taking cognisance of Jayalalithaa's charisma and the womenfolk's formidable support for her, Stalin repeatedly assured the people that once his party wrested power, "all those responsible for her death" would be brought to book. The Tamil Nadu government had ordered a Commission of Inquiry to go into the circumstances surrounding Jayalalithaa's death. Perhaps for the first time in DMK's history, Stalin asserted during his poll campaign that his party was not anti-Hindu to ensure that believers were not antagonised. He even said his wife offered worship in temples every day. In the DMK manifesto, Stalin made several attractive assurances like waiver of crop loans for farmers and later assured waiver of loans availed by landless poor farm labourers through pledging gold ornaments (from one to 40 grams).