The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has captured an overwhelming number of seats in the city and suburbs. With members from the party, which is set to form the next government representing their constituencies, the residents hope that this would augur well for the developmental works.
Of the 16 constituencies in Chennai district, the AIADMK front won in 12 – in some of them, by huge margins.. The DMK won in two constituencies and until late in the night, the results of Villivakkam and Egmore constituencies were not declared.
The result for Kolathur constituency was also announced late in the night with Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin declared as the winner. His nearest rival was Saidai S.Duraisamy.
Many of the victorious AIADMK candidates said they would wait for their party leader Jayalalithaa to give them directions. They also said they would try their best to fulfil their election promises.
In Harbour constituency, Pala.Karuppaiah of AIADMK defeated DMK's Altaf Hussain by 20,323 votes. In Thousand Lights, former AIADMK minister B. Valarmathi polled 7,592 votes more than DMK's Hasan Mohamed Jinnah. Ms. Valarmathi said that she would attend to the problems listed by voters in her constituency and would follow her leader's instructions.
D. Jayakumar was another former AIADMK minister who emerged winner at Royapuram. He polled 21,372 votes more than R. Manohar of Congress.
Sitting MLA G. Senthamizhan from AIADMK defeated his rival M. Magesh Kumaar of DMK by 12,071 votes at Saidapet. Mr. Senthamizhan is hoping to complete the developmental works that he had proposed during his previous tenure as MLA.
T.Nagar MLA V.P. Kalairajan of AIADMK emerged victorious by a margin of 32,462 votes. He defeated A. Chellakumar of Congress. Mr. Kalairajan said he was confident of improving infrastructure in his constituency.
First-time MLA R.Rajalakshmi (AIADMK) defeated Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President K.V. Thangkabalu by securing 29,240 more votes in Mylapore.
V. Neelakandan of AIADMK who contested from Thiru.Vi.Ka.Nagar is also first-time MLA. He polled 29,341 votes more than his nearest rival C. Natesan of Congress. Mr. Neelakandan had contested election twice from Perambur and Egmore constituencies unsuccessfully. In Anna Nagar, S. Gokula Indira of AIADMK won against V.K. Arivazhagan of Congress.
At Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni, J. Anbazhagan of DMK polled 64,191 votes and defeated Manithaneya Makkal Katchi's M. Thameemun Ansari. Mr.Anbazhagan was a MLA of T. Nagar constituency in 2001.
In R.K. Nagar, AIADMK candidate P. Vetrivel won the election by a margin of 31,255 votes defeating P.K. Sekar Babu, who joined the DMK a few weeks before the election. A. Soundararajan of Communist Party of India (Marxist) defeated N.R. Dhanapalan of DMK by a margin of 17,423 votes in Perambur. This is the second consecutive time that CPI(M) candidate would be representing Perambur.
In the suburbs, three AIADMK candidates P. Dhan Singh, V. Moorthy and S. Abdul Rahim who contested from Pallavaram, Madhavaram and Avadi respectively secured more than one lakh votes each.
Mr.Dhan Singh, former Pallavaram municipal chairman, defeated Labour Minister in the outgoing government T.M. Anbarasan by a margin of 17,374 votes.
Mr. Moorthy got 34,765 votes more than his opponent, N.S. Kanimozhi of DMK, in Madhavaram. Mr.Rahim who was vice-chairman of Avadi Municipality defeated R. Dhamotharan of Congress by 43,238 votes.
Two sitting MLAs S.R. Raja and B.Ranganathan were defeated in Tambaram and Ambattur respectively. In Tambaram, T.K.M.Chinneyah of AIADMK, a former municipal councillor, won by a margin of 14,067 votes. S. Vedachalam of AIADMK who was also a former municipal councillor secured 22,267 votes more than Mr.Ranganathan in Ambattur.
At Alandur, Panruti S.Ramachandran, presidium chairman of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam was declared elected, defeating his nearest rival K.Ghayathri Devi of Congress by 5,754 votes. The senior politician has now become MLA for the seventh time.
At Maduravoyal, CPI (M) candidate G.Beem Rao has got 24,011 votes more than his rival K.Selvam of Pattali Makkal Katchi.
The mood in AIADMK camp turned euphoric as its candidates in Kancheepuram, Uthiramerur, Sriperumpudur, Cheyyur, Madurantakam, Tiruporur, Tambaram, Pallavaram and Sholinganallur constituencies started registering a lead.
They romped home with the highest margin of 66,972 votes being registered in Sholinganallur and a lowest margin of 13,766 in Uthiramerur. DMDK candidate for Chengalpattu, D.Murugesan managed to clinch the seat with a slender margin of 291 votes.
(With inputs from K.Lakshmi, R. Sujatha, K. Manikandan and V.Venkatasubramanian)
