Tamil Nadu Lok Sabha election: Chennai goes to DMK, BJP pushes AIADMK, allies to third in 2 seats
Before the polls, political pundits had predicted a tough fight in the constituency owing to the candidature of Tamilisai and Jayavardhan against Thamizhachi Thangapandian.
File photo
CHENNAI: In an election where all three constituencies in Chennai went to the DMK yet again, what stood out was the BJP coming second in two of the three seats in the State capital.
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI) data, Dayanidhi Maran won Chennai Central constituency by securing more than 4.13 lakh votes. BJP candidate Vinoj P Selvam managed to get only 1.69 lakh votes, which is 2.44 lakh less than Maran, who is winning the constituency for the fourth term.
Former MLA B Parthasarathy of the DMDK, an ally of AIADMK, could secure only third place. Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) candidate R Karthikeyan came fourth with 46,031 votes.
Senior BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan, who resigned as Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry to flex muscles in Chennai South was trailing by 2.08 lakh votes at the time of going to press. Sitting MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian, whose brother Thangam Thennarasu is a State Cabinet Minister, was ahead with 4.85 lakh votes. AIADMK's
former MP J Jayavardhan, son of former minister D Jayakumar, was in third position and NTK's S Tamilchelvi was in fourth position.
Before the polls, political pundits had predicted a tough fight in the constituency owing to the candidature of Tamilisai and Jayavardhan against Thamizhachi Thangapandian. Also, the Chennai South has Assembly segments that have a higher number of upper caste localities like Mylapore, Mambalam, Mandaveli among others, who are thought to be BJP supporters. But a margin of more than two lakh votes suggests that Tamizhachi did not struggle as expected.
For the AIADMK, which had won all three seats in Chennai in 2014, Chennai North was the only consolation – if it can be termed so. Its candidate R Manohar alias Royapuram Mano managed to secure the second place with more than 1.58 lakh votes. Kalanidhi Veerasamy, the sitting MP, has secured close to 5 lakh votes - around 3.39 lakh more than Manohar. RC Paul Kanagaraj of BJP and Amudini of NTK are in third and fourth place respectively.