The DMK made a clean sweep in Tiruchi district, including in segments like Srirangam, Musiri, Manapparai and Mannachanallur that were considered as traditional AIADMK bastions.
The surprise factor was the wide margin of victory of the DMK candidates in most of the constituencies.
DMK candidate for Tiruchi East K. N. Nehru won over AIADMK competitor V. Padmanathan by a huge margin of 80,927 votes.
Likewise, in Tiruchi West, sitting MLA and Minister Vellamandi Natarajan suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of DMK’s Inigo Irudayaraj by a margin of 53,797 votes.
Strong indications for the victory of Tiruverumbur DMK candidate Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi emerged after the initial few rounds of counting.
At the end of counting, Mr. Mahesh established a clear lead of close to 50,000 votes. Last time, his margin of victory was 16,695 votes.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam wrested Srirangam, Musiri and Manachanallur Assembly constituencies from its arch rival AIADMK while retaining Lalgudi and Thuraiyur (reserved) Assembly segments. The DMK’s alliance partner Manithaneya Makkal Katchi candidate Abdul Samad won from the Manapparai Assembly constituency.
The DMK candidate and the party’s sitting MLA A. Soundarapandian got elected from the Lalgudi Assembly constituency by defeating the Tamil Maanila Congress candidate D. R. Dharmaraj of the Tamil Maanila Congress. Mr. Soundarapandian won by a margin of 16,949 votes.
M. Palaniyandi of the DMK won from the Srirangam Assembly constituency beating his AIADMK rival and former Minister Ku. Pa. Krishnan. In a stiff contest as it turned out to be where the DMK and the AIADMK candidates went ahead of each other in a slew of rounds, it was Palaniyandi who eventually emerged successful in the end beating Mr. Krishnan by a margin of 19,763 votes.
Sitting DMK MLA Stalin Kumar successfully retained the Thuraiyur Assembly seat defeating the AIADMK candidate T. Indra Gandhi by a margin of 22,071 votes. In Musiri Assembly constituency, DMK candidate N. Thiagarajan won by a margin of 26,836 votes over his AIADMK candidate and the sitting AIADMK MLA M. Selvaraj. In Manapparai Assembly constituency, Abdul Samad of the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi won by a margin of 12,065 votes defeating sitting AIADMK MLA Chandrasekar.
