Gaja storm blows in favour of DMK in Central districts

The Congress candidate fielded in Tiruchy Su Thirunavukkarasar won by a massive margin of 4.59 lakh votes while Karur Congress candidate S Jothimani trounced the AIADMK giant and outgoing Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha M Thambidurai. 

IJK party president and Perambalur Lok Sabha candidate Parivendhar contesting as part of the SPA, too tasted victory with a decent margin. While the entire region reflected the state-wide trend in the Lok Sabha election, the farm distress seems to have reflected in a big way on the results. 

The slow pace in disbursal of relief distribution for Gaja cyclone victims, especially the coconut farmers, played agains the ruling party candidates. Last December, the district farmers bore the brunt of the cyclone 

as nearly 45.66 lakh coconut trees were uprooted or badly damaged. 

Similarly, the support extended by the government for the hydrocarbon project too cast a spell on the performance of the AIADMK front as people perceived that the state government would ban the project as done earlier by the AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa. The crop loan waiver and basic income scheme front turned out to be the victory formula for the DMK camp. 

Right from the first round itself the candidates belonging to Secular Progressive Front maintained a solid lead. In Tiruchy, Congress candidate Su Thirunavukkarasar all through the counting process was ahead of his rival DMDK candidate Dr V Elangovan. 

While the Congress polled 6,21,285, the DMDK managed to secure only 161999 votes. Thus Congress won with a record margin of 4.53 lakh votes and this is considered as one of the highest margins in TN. 

Meanwhile, S S Palanimanickam, five-time MP from Thanjavur and Union Minister, beat his nearest rival TMC candidate N R Natarajan, who contested in AIADMK alliance. 

The DMK wrested the seat held by AIADMK in the 2014 elections. Right from the first round of counting of votes from the six assembly constituencies, coming under Thanjavur LS seat, Palanimanickam maintained a comfortable lead. 

The AMMK candidate P Murugesan, who was expected to give a fight, since Mannargudi is the town where TTV Dhinakaran lived, was relegated to third position. 

Similarly, the left dominated Nagapattinam, CPI candidate Selvaraj won by over 2 lakh votes and in Mayiladuthurai, DMK candidate Ramalingam also romped with a similar margin.