The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) perceived as a potential forum to woo youngsters, new voters, neutral voters, intellectuals and others has miserably failed to make an impact in Tamil Nadu, which has been a stronghold of Dravidian parties for more than five decades.
A close analysis of the recent Parliamentary election results suggests that the AAP’s electoral debut in the State could not provide a decent start. It has not at all penetrated into both urban and rural areas.
Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, which fielded its candidate in 25 constituencies in all regions of Tamil Nadu, could not get reasonable votes to their credit. It managed to win the confidence of just about 0.5 per cent of about 55 million voters. It means that it could not make its presence felt in any constituency of the State. In Karur, its candidate R. Valaiyapathi managed to get just 2,440 votes out of 10,47,054 polled votes. It is less than the votes scored by four Independent candidates. The situation is almost similar in the neighbouring Tiruchi constituency, where its candidate P. Ravi got just 3,145 votes.
As far as S.P. Udayakumar, M. Pushparayan, and M.P. Jesuraj are concerned, regarded as star candidates of AAP thanks to their concerted agitations against the nuclear power plant at Kudankulam that delayed the launch of the project for several months, they failed to live up to the expectation of party’s central leadership. The results show they were virtually unnoticed by the voters in Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari, which were focal points of the protests.
Mr. Udayakumar of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, who spearheaded protests that attracted the nationwide attention, polled just 15,314 votes out of 9,91,162 polled votes in Kanyakumari constituency. His colleague M. Pushparayan secured 26,476 votes in Tuticorin out of 9,16,913 votes. M.P. Jesuraj managed to get 18,453 votes in Tirunelveli. “The result is just a beginning. It is true that the party couldn’t make any impact in Tamil Nadu as we could not reach out to the people’’, said R. Valaiyapathi, AAP candidate for Karur.
