The Indhiya Jananayaka Katchi founder T. R. Paarivendhar contesting on DMK symbol won emphatically in the Perambalur Parliamentary constituency defeating his nearest AIADMK rival by a huge margin of over four lakh votes on Thursday.
This is Mr. Paarivendhar's maiden victory in a Lok Sabha election after having tasted defeat in the same constituency when he contested for the first time in the 2014 general elections.
Right from the first round, Mr. Paarivendhar went ahead of Mr. Sivapathy which he continued to maintain till the end when the results were finally declared. Mr. Paarivendhar polled 6,83,697 votes as against 2,80,179 votes polled by Mr. Sivapathy. Mr. Paarivendhar won by a margin of 4.03 lakh votes and received the election certificate from the Returning Officer and Perambalur District Collector V. Santha.
The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam's nominee M. Rajasekaran who contested as an independent on Gift Pack symbol lost his deposit. He polled more than 45,000 votes.
In a interaction with reporters at the counting centre, Mr. Paarivendhar thanked his party and DMK president M. K. Stalin for having given him a chance to contest.
Mr. Paarivendhar also thanked the electorate for reposing confidence in him and added that he would strive to fulfil the promises made in the run up to the election.
