Nellithope constituency has started hogging the limelight with the ruling Congress sweating it out to ensure that the seat is sustained as its relatively new-found pocket borough while the AIADMK is keen on regaining a seat that has returned its nominees twice in the recent past.
Nellithope was a bastion of the DMK and the interesting aspect of the constituency is that the DMK leader R.V. Janakiraman was elected repeatedly in all the Assembly elections held from 1985 to 2006.
The party’s highest-ever vote share of 52.31 per cent was recorded in 1996 when the DMK-TMC alliance headed by Mr. Janakiraman formed the Government. In the 2001 elections, the DMK’s vote share dropped to 51.42 per cent, but was still way ahead with the AIADMK mopping up 38.59 per cent.
Mr. Janakiraman conceded the seat to the AIADMK candidate Om Sakthi Sekar in 2006 who retained the seat in the 2011 poll but conceded the seat to the Congress candidate A. John Kumar in the May 2016 Assembly elections.
It was for the first time that the Congress had won the Nellithope seat. Mr. John Kumar established a record in wresting the seat from Om Sakthi Sekar, the two times MLA, in the 2016 elections by a margin of 12,141 votes. Mr. John Kumar polled 18,506 votes while Mr. Sekar polled 6365.
A Congress faction had won the seat in 1974 elections while the Janata Party won the seat in the 1977 elections.
The trend that the Congress was spreading its tentacles with popular support in Nellithope was evident in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
It was in this constituency that the Congress bagged a larger number of votes although it lost to its bitter rival the AINRC. Mr. Naryanasamy polled 11,844 votes while R. Radhakrishnan of the AINRC polled 4,412 votes.
Campaign
The high-profile and intense campaign for the November 19 by-poll in Nellithope will come to an end at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Though there are eight contestants in the fray, the fight is primarily between V. Narayanasamy of the Congress and Om Sakthi Sekar of the AIADMK.
The counting of votes will take place at the Bharathidasan Government College for Women on November 22.
