The DMK seems to be on a winning streak in the recently trifurcated districts — Vellore, Ranipet and Tirupattur — and Tiruvannamalai district in the Assembly election.
The DMK and its alliance had won and leading in 16 out of the 21 Assembly constituencies in the four districts by 9 p.m. on Sunday.
The counting began in a brisk manner on Sunday morning. Thousands of policemen were deployed in the four districts and tight security was in place. Candidates and agents were allowed to enter the counting centres after stringent security checks. The premises were sanitised at regular intervals and COVID-19 protocols were followed.
In Katpadi assembly constituency, DMK cadres were dejected in the morning as their candidate and DMK general secretary Duraimurugan was trailing behind AIADMK candidate V. Ramu initially. However after noon, things turned around and Mr. Duraimurugan was leading. Eventually, he won the battle to be elected for the eleventh time to the Legislative Assembly.
“In the evening, there was some confusion as five EVMs were not working due to a snag. The DMK cadres demanded that the postal ballots be counted first and the AIADMK wanted the EVMs to be counted. Senior police officers visited the counting centres to monitor the situation,” a police source said.
Meanwhile V. Amulu of DMK won in Gudiyatham constituency and DMK candidates P. Karthikeyan and A.P. Nandakumar were leading in Vellore and Anaicut constituencies. In K.V. Kuppam, Puthiya Bharatham Katchi candidate M. Jagan Moorthy was leading.
In Ranipet, DMK and Indian National Congress candidates were leading in three out of the four constituencies. While R. Gandhi of DMK had secured a comfortable lead in Ranipet, J.L. Easwarppan of DMK was leading in Arcot. In Sholinghur, A.M. Munirathnam of the Indian National Congress was leading since morning. In Arakkonam however, S. Ravi was way ahead of the VCK candidate Gowthama Sannah.
In Tirupattur district, DMK won three seats and AIADMK one. In Jolarpet, K. Devaraji of DMK won the election against the AIADMK candidate and Minister K.C. Veeramani by a margin of 1,091 votes. In Vaniyambadi, AIADMK candidate G. Senthil Kumar won the polls by a margin of 4,904 votes. In Tirupattur, DMK's Nallathambi won by a margin of 28,240 votes, and in Ambur DMK candidate A. C. Vilvanathan was leading.
In Tiruvannamalai district with eight assembly constituencies, the DMK was on course to win in six. DMK candidate E.V. Velu led by a margin of 92,151 votes in Tiruvannamalai over BJP candidate S. Thanigaivel. In Vandavasi, DMK candidate S. Ambethkumar led by 35,953 votes. DMK candidate T. Saravanan was leading in Kalasapakkam Assembly segment by a margin of 8,642 votes and DMK candidates K. Pichandi and O. Jothi were leading in Kilpennathur and Cheyyar.
Meanwhile, AIADMK candidates Sevoor S. Ramachandran and Agri S.S. Krishnamoorthi were leading in Arni and Polur constituencies.
