V.S. Vijay, orthopaedic specialist and victorious All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate making his debut from Vellore Assembly constituency in the 2011 general election, will be remembered for his historic win. It marked the achievement of the AIADMK not only wresting the constituency after a gap of 34 years and seven elections but also ending the winning spree of four-time MLA C. Gnanasekaran of the Congress.
Dr. Vijay defeated Mr. Gnanasekaran by a margin of 15,176 votes.
It was way back in 1977 when the AIADMK captured power in Tamil Nadu for the first time under the leadership of its founder M.G. Ramachandran that the party made its debut in Vellore. Its then candidate A.K. Ranganathan won the seat, defeating A.K. Lalalajapathy of the Janata Party. In the subsequent three Assembly elections - 1980, 1984 and 1989 - V.M. Devaraj of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam emerged victorious, defeating the AIADMK or the AIADMK (Jayalalithaa faction) candidates. Mr. Devaraj defeated A.K. Ranganathan of the AIADMK in 1980 and 1984 and P. Neelakandan of the AIADMK (Jayalalithaa) in 1989 when the AIADMK was split into two factions, - AIADMK (Jayalalithaa) and AIADMK (Janaki) following the death of MGR in 1987.
The next four elections saw C. Gnanasekaran emerge victorious. In fact it was in 1984 that the united AIADMK contested the Vellore seat last, while in 1989, the AIADMK (Jayalalithaa) and the AIADMK (Janaki) contested separately. After that, the AIADMK never contested the seat, leaving it to its allies till 2011, when it directly contested the seat and eventually won.
Another constituency which the AIADMK has wrested in a general election after a long time is Vaniyambadi, which the party won after a gap of 31 years.
