CHENNAI: The combination of various caste-based political parties, led by the DMK, miserably failed to produce the desired effect. On the other hand, Vanniyar-based Pattali Makkal Katchi accommodated in the AIADMK has done a splendid performance by winning 20 of the 27 constituencies it contested.

The final tally shows, barring Dalit Panthers leader R Thirumavalavan, all other caste-based party leaders in the DMK have been routed in the elections.

Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) leader K Krishnasamy, who contested from Ottapidaram and Valparai constituencies, was defeated in both. All the 10 candidates fielded by his party lost the elections. In fact, the DMK depended heavily on PT in Southern districts, especially in Tirunelveli, Sivakasi, Tenkasi and Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituencies.

Thirumavalavan was the lone DPI candidate to be elected. He scraped through by a narrow margin from Mangalur constituency in Cuddalore. All the other candidates of his party, numbering seven in all, were defeated.

Consolidation of Dalit votes under a militant leadership seemed to have proved counter-productive for the DMK in that it might have alienated the non-Dalit votes en bloc in many constituencies.

The New Justice Party launched by A C Shanmugam, a party of Mudaliars, and Makkal Tamil Desam, founded by former Minister Kannappan representing Yadavas, also proved a damb squib. Both parties, for all the noise they made, drew a blank.