Jaya loses power, but puts up a good show

CHENNAI:J Jayalalithaa has lost power, her government has fallen. But her performance inthe 2006 elections is quite creditable.Though, for the first time inseveral decades, no clear winner has emerged, Jayalalitha has managed torestrict the gap between her party alliance and the DMK alliance. The combinedseven party alliance of the DMK won 97 seats, while the AIADMK bagged 61seats.The DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) had aheadstart with an arithmetic combination of nearly 55 per cent of the vote bank.It may have won the election, but has a reduced combined percentage of justabout 42 per cent. This is certainly a cause for worry for the grand-old man ofDravidian politics,M Karunanidhi.Karunanidhi may not be too gung-hoabout the verdict, because it does not give him the usual freedom of running agovernment on his own. But the fact is that the common agenda of the DPAalliance, to oust the ���autocratic rule��� of the AIADMK, has broughtthem to power.The AIADMK has wrested as many as 7 out of the 14seats in the DMK bastion of Chennai city alone, winning the Royapuram, Mylapore,Saidapet, T Nagar, Park Town, RK Nagar, and Triplicane constituencies. And asadmitted by Karunanidhi, it has been a setback for the DMK.But thisapart, Jayalalithaa���s performance has been rather subdued, largely becauseshe was not accommodating enough while choosing alliancepartners.Her bete noire Karunanidhi, on the other hand, was generousin sharing seats with alliance partners, particularly the Congress, and it haspaid off. In hindsight, Jayalalithaa would have done well to have forged analliance with Vijaykanth���s Desiya Murpoku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK). Theparty, in combination with actorpolitician Kaarthick, has been a deciding factorin splitting AIADMK votes. Her party has done very badly in Kanyakumari, Ramnadand Tirunelveli districts, though the southern districts are her bastion. Inthese three districts alone, there are 20 seats and the AIADMK has managed towin just two seats in Tirunelveli. The party has lost largely due toKaarthick���s Forward which has eaten into Thevar vote bank. The has gainedhere.Another factor is the performance of DMDK���s Vijaykanth,who has polled between 5,000 to 10,000 votes each of the constituencies thewestern belt bordering Coimbatore. This too has the AIADMK badly.Atthe outset, all pre-surveys indicating a victory for Jayalalithaa���salliance. The entry of Vaiko���s MDMK into her alliance gave her furtherstrength, but apparently, it was not enough to tilt scales in AIADMK���sfavour.Instead, the alliance helped the MDMK win seats. On the otherhand, Congress alliance helped the DPA alliance sweep the Kanyakumari and it hasplayed a large in the final scheme things.