Congress springs surprise, improves its strike rate

Alagiri cites alliance’s strength, cadre unity

The Congress in Tamil Nadu finally overcame the ‘strike rate’ hurdle faced by it in the past Assembly elections (2011 and 2016) by winning or establishing leads in about 16 of 25 seats allotted to it by the DMK (at the time of going for print). The party also retained the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat for which a bypoll was held.

This works out to a success rate of 64%, the highest since 2006 and 2001, when it won over 50% of the seats allotted to it by the DMK and the AIADMK respectively. Coming on the back of tough negotiations with the DMK where the party wanted a ‘respectable’ number of seats, the Congress considered the victory a big step forward for it in the State. In 2011, the party got 63 seats from the DMK but won only five, and in 2016, it won just eight of the 41 seats allotted to it. Only in 2006, it managed to win more seats — 34 of the 48 contested — than its current tally.

TNCC president K.S. Alagiri expressed happiness over the party’s performance. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Alagiri attributed the victory to the strength of the DMK alliance and unity among Congress workers.

“Everyone worked well in sync. Our cadre also worked very hard and there was genuine unity among everyone,” he said.

Facing the BJP

In the five seats where it was pitted against the other national party, the BJP, the Congress managed to establish leads in four. The only seat it lost was in a three-cornered and close fight in Coimbatore-South, where actor Kamal Haasan and BJP’s Vanathi Srinivasan faced off against its candidate Mayura Jayakumar.

The party was comfortably placed against the BJP in Colachel, Udhagamandalam, Vilavanocde and Karaikudi. At Vridhachalam, the party’s Radhakrishnan trounced the DMDK’s Premalatha Vijayakant by a big margin. It also won the lone seat given to it in Chennai — Velachery, where its leader Rahul Gandhi held an election rally.

While the Congress managed to establish leads in other seats where it was pitted against the AIADMK, it either lost or was trailing behind the AIADMK’s candidates in seven constituencies — Uthangarai, Sriperumbudur, Omalur, Melur, Kallakurichi, Srivilliputtur and Udumalaipettai.

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