Several exit polls had predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would open its account in Tamil Nadu but the INDIA bloc led by DMK has registered a clean sweep in the state and Union Territory of Puducherry by winning all the 40 seats. Axis My India predicted that the BJP would secure wins in Tenkasi and Tirunelveli constituencies. The Tamil Nadu BJP which was hopeful of winning a few seats in a bid to project themselves as the key player in the state, lost all the seats contested.
Tamil Nadu is the only south Indian state where BJP has not been able to register a win in a single constituency. This is despite the national party forming an alliance with regional parties like the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and other smaller outfits. The BJP also suffered losses possibly because their alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was severed after several public spat with Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai.
The lone Lok Sabha seat in Puducherry was also won by the INDIA bloc, that has the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) as key constituents.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is composed of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and other smaller parties. Just ahead of the elections Actor Sarathkumar too had merged his party All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) with the BJP in the state and secured a ticket for his wife Radhika Sarathkumar from Virudhunagar constituency. Radhika ended in the third position.
A key constituency, Coimbatore garnered national attention as it witnessed a contest between BJP state president K Annamalai and DMK’s Ganapathy Rajkumar. However, Annamalai was trailing right from the beginning and lost to Ganapathy by a vote margin of 1,16,131 votes.
The state saw a neck-to-neck race between PMK’s Sowmiya Anbumani and DMK’s Mani A in Dharmapuri constituency with the two members trailing and taking the lead interchangeably. In the end, however, Mani won by 21,300 votes. Similarly, Virudhunagar witnessed a close contest between Congress sitting MP Manickam Tagore and DMDK leader V Vijayaprabhakaran, but Tagore won by a margin of 4,379 votes.
Several exit polls had predicted that the INDIA bloc would win 36 to 39 seats in the state. Axis My India predicted that the BJP would make inroads in the state by securing a victory in Tenkasi and Tirunelveli.
The DMK, in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, secured 33.5% of the votes and Congress got 12.7%. The coalition secured 38 out of the 39 seats. AIADMK’s vote share was 19.3% and BJP’s was 3.6%.