Riding the wave in favour of DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance in the parliamentary elections across the State, Su. Venkatesan of the Communist Party of India -Marxist has won Madurai parliamentary constituency by securing 4,47,075.
The party has won the constituency after a gap of 10 years - P. Mohan won the Lok Sabha seat in 1999 and 2004. The incumbent was AIADMK’s R. Gopalakrishnan, who won against DMK in 2014.
Mr. Venkatesan defeated AIADMK’s V.V.R. Raj Satyen, who secured 3,07,680 votes, by a comfortable margin of 1,39,395 votes. Mr. Venkatesan maintained a comfortable lead from the first round of counting and maintained it till the end. Barring Madurai South Assembly constituency, where AIADMK polled more in some of the rounds, CPI (M) polled more in the remaining five Assembly constituencies throughout all the rounds.
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Speaking to the media, Mr. Venkatesan thanked the electorate for giving him an opportunity to serve. “Both the key opposition candidates paid money to voters. However, the voters have strongly sent out a message that money power cannot triumph over the power of democracy,” he said.
Unlike what was predicted, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) did not eat into AIADMK’s share considerably. The party’s candidate, K. David Annadurai, came a distant third by securing 85,747 votes. The party’s performance was not impressive even in Melur Assembly segment, where the party was launched and where it was believed to have a strong support base.
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Meanwhile, Makkal Needhi Maiam’s (MNM) M. Alagar secured an impressive 85,048 votes and came fourth. MNM, in fact, secured more in urban Assembly segments and was at the third position until the last few rounds of counting.
AMMK ovetakes
However, AMMK overtook MNM by a wafer thin lead of 699 to secure the third position. Naam Tamilar Katchi’s J. Pandiammal secured fifth position by securing 42,901 votes.