Apart from the stunning performance by All India N R Congress (AINRC) led by N. Rangasamy in the 2011 Assembly polls , other interesting facets that emerged out of the results include the electoral gain made by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) due to its alliance with the AINRC.
The party made its best performance after the 1991 polls winning five out of the 10 seats in the latest elections, overtaking the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam which most of the time had an upper hand in terms of numbers in the Assembly.
The AIADMK candidates could manage to win only three seats of the 14 it contested in the previous elections.
Riding high on the popularity wave of Mr. Rangasamy and on anti-incumbency factor, the AIADMK candidates defeated their nearest rivals belonging to the Congress and the DMK by a huge margin. For the party's Puducherry unit secretary, A. Anbalgan, who made it third time to the Assembly from Ouppalam constituency, the results were crucial as his brother too was introduced in the electoral fray from the Mudaliarpet constituency on the party ticket.
Interestingly his brother, A. Baskar won the seat by a huge margin, the fourth highest after Mr. Rangasamy, former Revenue Minister Malladi Krishna Rao, and AINRC candidate Ashok Anand.
He won the seat defeating DMK's M.A.S .Subramanian by a margin of 9727 votes. All the other AIADMK candidates won by a margin ranging from 2,500 to 4,300 votes.
While the AIADMK reaped benefits out of its alliance with the AINRC, the other ally, the Communist Party of India, which continuously had representation in the Assembly from 1990, could not make it to its advantage. The lone party candidate, N. Kalainathan, lost to the outgoing Chief Minister V. Vaithilingam from Kamaraj Nagar constituency He lost by a difference of 6,029 votes.
The results also showed the continued poor performance of the Bharathiya Janata Party in Union Territory. Though the party put up candidates in all 30 Assembly segments and carried out a high voltage campaign with Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj and party chief Nitin Gadkari, majority of those fielded lost their deposits.
Except in three constituencies where the party candidates managed more than 1,000 votes, others only got 100 to 600 votes.
The party's maximum vote of 1,672 was from Lawspet.
Independents
Historically, the Union Territory has always been giving space to Independents. This time too, one candidate, who was in the fray, got elected and some candidates put up good performance, spoiling the chances of the Congress and the DMK nominees. Independents came second in constituencies such as Nedungadu, Oupplam, Karaikal South, Ozhukarai, Thattanchavady and obtained third position in Lawspet, Neravy T R Pattinam and Raj Bhavan. There were as many as 79 Independents in the fray.
However, except for these nine candidates, others lost their deposits. Other than Scheduled Caste persons, whose fee for contesting was Rs. 5,000, those in general category had to deposit Rs. 10,000.
