The AIADMK managed to win two and take the lead in three more of the eight constituencies in Tiruppur district, till 9 p.m. on Sunday. The DMK managed to win two and take the lead in one constituency following the counting of votes for the Assembly election.
The counting process took place at L.R.G Government Arts College for Women on Palladam Road in Tiruppur Corporation limits.
Former Minister of Animal Husbandry Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan won for the second consecutive time from Udumalpet Assembly constituency. Securing 96,893 votes by the end of the final round of counting, he won against K. Thennarasu of the Congress, who was fielded by the DMK front, with a victory margin of 21,895 votes, officials said.
The AIADMK also managed to wrest Madathukulam Assembly constituency from the DMK as the former’s candidate C. Mahendran defeated R. Jayaramakrishnan, who was the incumbent MLA from the DMK. A former Lok Sabha MP, Mr. Mahendran won 84,371 votes while his opponent won 77,668 votes, causing the victory margin to be 6,683 votes.
At Avinashi (Reserved) constituency, former Speaker of Legislative Assembly P. Dhanapal garnered a solid lead by the end of the 25th round with a margin of 47,626 votes against his opponent Athiyamaan Raju of the Aathi Tamizhar Peravai, who was fielded by the DMK front.
The incumbent MLA of Tiruppur North constituency K.N. Vijeyakumar was leading since the counting of votes commenced and had a margin of 34,406 votes by the end of the 32nd round. His opponent, M. Ravi aka Subramanian of the CPI, who was the candidate of the DMK front, secured 60,256 votes while he secured 94,662 votes.
Former Minister and AIADMK candidate for Palladam constituency M.S.M. Anandan secured 62,376 votes against K. Muthurathinam from the MDMK, who contested in DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’ symbol and won 46,633 votes at the end of the 19th round of counting. While the final results were yet to be declared at the time of filing this report, these three candidates were poised to win following the completion of the counting process, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the DMK won in Kangeyam constituency and Tiruppur South and took the lead at Dharapuram (Reserved) constituency. The DMK’s candidate for Kangeyam and former Minister M.P. Saminathan won 94,197 votes against AIADMK’s A.S. Ramalingam, who won 86,857 votes in the final round of counting.
Former Mayor of Tiruppur Corporation K. Selvaraj, who was the DMK’s candidate for Tiruppur South constituency, won 74,944 votes against incumbent MLA from AIADMK S. Gunasekaran who won 70,551 votes. The victory margin was 4,393 votes.
In Dharapuram (Reserved) constituency, BJP State president L. Murugan was leading till the 13th round of counting. However, DMK’s N. Kayalvizhi took the lead from the 14th round and by the end of the 24th and penultimate round, she garnered 85,513 votes, which was 668 votes higher than Mr. Murugan’s.
However, the polling officials reported a malfunctioning in electronic voting machine (EVM) during the 25th and final round, which delayed the declaration of results.
Following this, agents from the BJP petitioned the Returning Officer of Dharapuram (Reserved) constituency Pavankumar G. Giriyappanavar to halt the announcement of the final results as they raised suspicions on the allegedly faulty EVM and the counting of postal votes. The final results were yet to be declared at the time of filing this report.
