DMK continues trend, becomes third largest party in LS

For the second time in a row, a political party from Tamil Nadu will be the third largest party in the Lok Sabha after the Congress. If it was the AIADMK in the outgoing Lok Sabha, it is now the turn of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

The DMK with 23 MPs will be the third largest political party in the lower house of the Parliament, an honour that the AIADMK enjoyed between 2014 and 2019 with 37 MPs.

Closely followed by the DMK is the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and Andhra Pradesh’s YSR Congress which have a strength of 22 members each.

The AIADMK, which is the third largest party in the outgoing Lok Sabha, was gifted with the deputy speaker’s post by the BJP, given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal equation with the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Behind Congress

The DMK will be just 30 seats behind its alliance partner, the Congress, which has only won 52 seats.

Though the DMK can’t do much with the status of the third largest party in Lok Sabha, its support would be crucial for the BJP in case it needs to pass constitutional amendment bills that need a two-thirds majority. Opposition benches would be filled with members from Tamil Nadu, who form a large bloc of 37 people — Congress has won eight seats in the state and the Left parties have emerged victorious in four constituencies in the Southern state.

Though the DMK will have to sit in Opposition benches despite it winning an impressive number of seats, the victory would help the party in the Assembly elections due in 2021. “This is the biggest victory for the DMK after the death of its patriarch M Karunanidhi and the party needs to consolidate its victory by working with the people.

The DMK should use this victory to make new inroads to win the Assembly elections,” Prof Ramu Manivannan, Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras, told DH.