The Lok Sabha constituencies, falling in the Cauvery delta region of the State, have always recorded higher turnout than the State’s average, since the delimitation in 2008.
Four Lok Sabha elections have taken place in the last 16 years, including Friday’s (April 19) polling. On all the occasions — in 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024 — the turnout of Karur, Mayiladuthurai, Perambalur, and Chidambaram, was higher than the overall average of the State. Dindigul, in the southern region, was another constituency that scored ahead of the State’s average, all the time.
This is one of the main findings of a study of the voter turnout data, in one third of the total number of 39 constituencies, in the State. In addition to the five constituencies, eight others — South Chennai, Sriperumbudur, Vellore, Dharmapuri, Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tenkasi — were chosen for the study. Chidambaram, Nilgiris and Tenkasi are the constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC).
Familiar faces
One of the factors that contributed to the consistent performance of the seats is the presence of well-known candidates. For example, till 2019, the AIADMK’s veteran, M. Thambi Durai, was fielded in Karur. By defeating him last time, S. Jothimani came to be known as a giant killer. As for Chidambaram, the VCK’s founder, Thol Thirumavalavan, contested in all the four elections. Except in 2009, when film actor-turned-politician D. Napoleon was in the fray, Perambalur, in the last three polls, had the 82-year-old patriarch of the SRM Group of Institutions and the Indiya Jananayaka Katchi (IJK)’s founder, T.R. Paarivendhar, as one of its candidates.
On the contrary, South Chennai and Sriperumbudur, both in the northern region of the State, were below par, in addition to Coimbatore. In fact, South Chennai this time, was at the penultimate spot, in terms of turnout. All the three are elector-heavy constituencies, with the size exceeding the 20-lakh electors. Being essentially urban constituencies, they also suffer from the problem of the presence of ASD (Absent, Shifted and Deceased) electors in the rolls. Tenkasi is also part of this group of poor performers.
Dharmapuri, one of the economically-backward areas in the country, recorded higher turnout in three out of four polls, while Vellore and the Nilgiris belonged to the “50:50” category. Only once, Madurai witnessed higher turnout than the State’s average and that was in 2009, when M.K. Alagiri, a son of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, was the DMK nominee and, on election, he went on to become a Union Minister.
