This is the regional winners. DMK took all the seats in Chennai and swept Delta.
In both North and South TN, AIADMK were able to win a handful of seats. More often than not there were concentrated in pockets - something ill be exploring when we look at the results regionwise.
Kongu was a proper AIADMK sweep. For a few elections now the region has been leaning strongly towards AIADMK, but I think this result was still surprising.
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First the overall winners. The DMK alliance won clearly with a majority of 159 seats. While many predicted a 1996 like sweep, the AIADMK alliance managed to win 73.
None of the other alliances were able to win any seats. NTK managed to clearly establish themselves as the third front. The People's Front and People First Alliance [PFA] fought hard for fourth place with the People's Front managing to get a narrow edge.
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And finally here is all the subregions and their respective contributions to Tamil Nadu electoral politics.
The divisions have been made with a number of criteria - from Sangam, colonial, imperial and relatively modern TN politics. The aim is to see if they do form distinct political blocks.
I wanted to establish this classification before looking at the rest of the data.
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South : The varied lands south of Madurai. From saltpans, coastlines, ports, shadows of the Western ghats and the tip of Tamil Nadu.
Ramnad - the remnants of historical Ramnad kingdom. Pudukottai, Sivagangai and Ramanathapuram.
Central Pandya - the bulk of the South. Madurai, Thenkasi, Theni, Virudhunagar and Thoothukodi.
Cape - also known as Karunanidhi's conundrum. Characterized by the remnants of imperial politics. Also in some cases an overflow of Kerala politics.
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Delta : the lower Kaveri basin and the Kaveri delta. In most divisions this region is bigger. I have removed Cuddalore and Pudukottai from this region as I felt their politics was more similar to their other neighboring regions.
Western Chola - Tiruchirapalli, Ariyalur and Perambalur
Central Chola - Thanjavur and Tiruvarur
Coastal Chola - Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam
Though delta politics is quite homogeneous, I made the divisions because I suspect there may be a change in 2026.
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Kongu : the upper Kaveri basin to the western border. The wet current industrial heartland.
Baramahal - Salem
Ponni - the districts directly on the Kaveri. Erode, Namakkal and Karur
Kovai - Coimbatore
Mountain Kongudom - The Nilgiris
Union - the highly industrialized bit of Kongu. Tiruppur and Dindigul
Some of the divisions may seem a little random. Just dividing it this way to see if they form separate political blocks.
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North : The basins of the Palar and Thenpennai [and a bit of the Kaveri]. Politically dominated by the politics of the PMK and DMDK. The dry erstwhile industrial heartland.
PeriChennai - The overflow of Chennai politics. Much more urban. In some sense the ends of Chennai suburban rail. Chengalpattu, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur.
North Arcot - Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur and Tiruvannamalai.
South Arcot - Villupuram, Cuddalore and Kallakurichi
Baramahal - Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri
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Since there is no official divisions of regions and different media houses have their own, I have made my own divisions and subdivisions. Here's what it looks like.
Chennai : Essentially comprising just Chennai district. Most other divisions keep it as 16 seats, but my guess is that the politics spills over into the entire district and not just the metropolitan area.
The other regions are described in more detail in the following posts.
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