Health Minister and sitting AIADMK candidate C. Vijayabaskar was re-elected for the third consecutive time from the Viralimalai Assembly constituency with the official declaration of his victory coming on Monday morning.
The prolonged delay in announcement of Mr. Vijaybasker’s victory was due to stoppage of counting thrice on Sunday, leading to anxiety and tension.
At the end of the final round of counting, Mr. Vijayabaskar won comfortably defeating his nearest DMK rival M. Palaniappan by a margin of 23,598 votes. Mr. Vijayabaskar polled 1,02,179 votes against 78,581 votes by Mr. Palaniappan. There were in all 22 candidates in the electoral fray in the constituency.
Counting of votes for this constituency which started at 8 a.m. on Sunday along with the other five Assembly segments in the district was stopped for the first time in the morning, again in the afternoon hours and yet again late in the night after the completion of sixth round by when Mr. Vijayabaskar had gained a lead of 7,242 votes.
The DMK initially complained and raised objections that the serial numbers in the control unit and that of the VVPAT differed which led to stoppage of counting. Heated arguments broke out between supporters of both parties at the counting centre. After some time, counting of votes resumed only to stop again after a coir thread was apparently noticed strapped on a box containing electronic voting machines triggering suspicion among DMK members who complained about some malpractice.
Official sources said after detailed discussions with poll officials the counting of votes resumed well past midnight and went on till Monday morning. There were in all 23 rounds of counting.
Mr. Vijayabaskar told reporters on Monday morning prior to announcement of the results that the margin of lead being high, he had wanted the results to be declared without delay. He said he had sent written representations to the Election Commission to declare the results as he had established a lead of over 23,000 votes.
Official sources said votes polled in 13 electronic voting machines in which some objections were raised by the DMK members were also counted after bringing the issue to the notice of the Chief Electoral Officer and the results were officially declared on Monday morning. Mr. Vijayabaskar received the election certificate following his victory from the Returning Officer.
In Tirumayam assembly constituency, former Union Minister and sitting DMK MLA S. Regupathy won by a thin margin of 1,382 votes defeating the AIADMK candidate P.K. Vairamuthu. Congress candidate T. Ramachandran won from Aranthangi constituency by a handsome margin of 30,893 votes. V. Muthuraja of the DMK won from Pudukottai assembly constituency by a margin of 13,001 votes defeating AIADMK's Karthik Thondaiman.
