The former Chief Minister and DMK president M. Karunanidhi retained his Tiruvarur constituency with a thumping win to maintain a clean slate in the Assembly elections thereby recording his 13th straight victory since 1957.
The 92-year-old patriarch of the DMK who defied his health and age to tour the State in van and campaign for his party and alliance candidates humbled his nearest AIADMK rival R. Panneerselvam by a record margin of 68,366 votes. In doing so, Mr. Karunanidhi broke his own record in 2011 victory margin of 50,249 votes while aggregating 1,09,014 votes then.
Ever having tasted defeat in all his Assembly electoral battles, Mr. Karunanidhi went into the fray as the undisputed king and true to his reputation kept his date with history becoming the oldest and the senior most legislator in the next Assembly. He could well be among the winners with top drawer margins.
While Mr. Karunanidhi secured 1,21,473 votes, Mr. Panneerselvam of the AIADMK recorded 53,107 votes followed by P.S. Masilamani of the Communist Party of India who got 13,518. A total of 2,177 voters preferred NOTA in the constituency where 15 candidates were in the fray in all.
Incidentally, Mr. Karunanidhi commenced his Assembly election campaign after paying homage to his mother Anjugam Ammal at her samadhi at Kattur near Tiruvarur. Since he had to tour the State, his son M.K. Tamilarasu and daughter Selvi Selvam campaigned along with local party cadre and leaders on behalf of Mr. Karunanidhi and bolstered his victory margin.
Though the DMK Assembly election manifesto had originally promised waiver of crop loan for micro and small farmers, it was while campaigning in the predominantly agrarian Tiruvarur constituency that Mr. Karunanidhi announced the decision to expand the bonanza to cover all sections of farmers.
On Thursday, after Mr. Karunanidhi’s victory, DMK Tiruvarur district secretary Poondi K. Kalaivanan received the winner’s certificate from Tiruvarur constituency Returning Officer R. Muthumeenakshi on behalf of his leader.
Despite the defeat of the party in the Assembly elections, the DMK cadre in Tiruvarur had something to cheer in Mr. Karunanidhi's victory. In fact, the DMK won three of the four Assembly constituencies in Tiruvarur district leaving only Nannilam constituency for the AIADMK from where Food Minister and AIADMK candidate R. Kamaraj won.
