DMK wrestled Tirupparankundram Assembly constituency from AIADMK with a slender margin of 2,396 votes in the results of the recently concluded byelection declared on Thursday.
While DMK’s candidate P. Saravanan secured 85,434 votes, AIADMK’s S. Muniyandi finished a close second by securing 83,038 votes. Though Dr. Saravanan maintained a lead of around couple of thousand votes from the first round of counting, the fortunes seemed to change with the margin coming closer to just a few hundred votes.
However, Mr. Muniyandi could not overtake Dr. Saravanan as the counting progressed and the latter heaved a sigh of relief as the 22 rounds of counting of Electronic Voting Machine votes and postal ballots came to an end.
Tirupparankundram, which is perceived as a stronghold of AIADMK, was last won by DMK 23 years ago in the 1996 Assembly elections when there was a strong anti-incumbency against AIADMK that was in power. In the last byelection held for the constituency in November 2016, A.K. Bose of AIADMK defeated Dr. Saravanan by 42,670 votes.
Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AMMK) I. Mahendran played spoilsport for AIADMK by securing 31,199 votes.
While Makkal Needhi Maiam’s P. Sakthivel secured 12,610 votes, Naam Tamilar Katchi’s R. Revathi polled 5,467 votes.
