DMK gains ground in Virudhunagar district

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam gained much ground in Virudhunagar district with the party winning four out of the seven Assembly constituencies in this election.

This is a significant performance for the party considering the fact that it managed to win only one – Tiruchuli –Assembly segment in 2011. Apart from retaining Tiruchuli Assembly seat by its candidate Thangam Thennarasu, the party snatched Aruppukottai, Rajapalayam and Virudhunagar constituencies.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had to be contended with the victories in three Assembly segments – Sivakasi, Srivilliputtur and Sattur.

While former Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran won Aruppukottai seat with a huge margin, former DMK MLA Virudhunagar A.R.R. Srinivasan emerged victorious in a seesaw battle by a margin of 2,870 votes.

Having tasted defeat in the same constituency, DMK candidate for Rajapalayam Assembly constituency, S. Thangapandian, scraped through in the last few rounds and defeated the ruling party candidate A.A.S. Shyam by a margin of 4,802 votes.

Comfortable win

However, the AIADMK managed comfortable victory in two of the remaining three constituencies. The party sealed a thumping victory in Srivilliputtur, with its female candidate M. Chandra Prabha handing out a crushing defeat to Puthiya Tamilagam candidate C. Muthukumar by a margin of 36,673 votes.

AIADMK district secretary and Minister for Information and Special Schemes Implementation K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji retained Sivakasi Assembly seat with a margin of 14,748 votes. He defeated the lone Congress candidate in the district, C. Sreeraja.

In Sattur, AIADMK candidate S.G. Subramanian won with a slender margin of 4,802 votes by defeating his nearest rival V. Srinivasan of the DMK.