The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had shown its resilience by snatching the victory from its political rivals. Villupuram too fell in line to prove that as far as the State -wide poll trend is concerned it is no different.
The AIADMK candidate S. Rajendran romped home in the Villupuram (Reserve) parliamentary constituency. He polled 4,82,704 votes, thereby defeating his closest rival Dr. K. Muthiyan of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (who secured 2,89,337 votes) by a margin of 1,93,367 votes.
K. Umasankar of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam trailed a close third with 2,09,663 votes. By obtaining just 21,461 votes and 17,408 votes respectively K. Rani of the Indian National Congress and G. Anandan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) simply render themselves out of the reckoning.
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The AIADMK has simply exploded the myth that the National Democratic Alliance, consisting of the BJP, the PMK, the MDMK and the DMDK, is a formidable combine that would make a wave in the elections. However, it can be said to the credit of the DMDK candidate Mr. Umasankar that he has managed to get a sizeable chunk of votes to finish third, in the face of bickering with one of the allies, the PMK. It gives the signal that the Modi factor has had its impact here too.
It can be noted that as many as 11,440 voters preferred to press the NOTA (None of the above) button.