INDIA bloc romps home in south Tamil Nadu with margins in lakhs of votes

MADURAI: The ruling DMK and its allies eased to comfortable victories over rivals in the constituencies across the southern districts at the end of counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday. Cadre erupted in joy and burst into celebration to mark the landslide victory.

After 22 rounds of counting, Su Venkatesan of CPM, an ally of DMK, won for the second consecutive term from Madurai. He bagged 4,21,628 votes, defeating his nearest rival Raama Sreenivasan of the BJP, who secured 2,17,167 votes. AIADMK’s P Saravanan trailed behind those two candidates, but managed to get 2,01,604 votes.

Information and Technology Minister PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan offered sweets to the victorious candidate on the occasion and jubilant cadre burst crackers and offered sweets to the public.

R Sachidanandam of CPM in Dindigul polled 6,70,502 votes and achieved a massive victory with a highest margin of 4,43,933 votes against SDPI’s VMS Mohammed Mubarak, who just polled 2,26,569 votes representing the AIADMK. There’s no contest at all for the CPM candidate from the NDA’s M Thilagabama of PMK who just polled 1,12,544 votes.

In Tirunelveli Congress candidate C Robert Bruce emerged triumphant with 4,94,150 votes against BJP’s Nainar Nagendran, who got 3,31,369 votes. M Jansirani (AIADMK) earned 85,058 votes, sources said.

In Theni, Thanga Tamilselvan of the DMK right from the start took an unassailable lead over his nearest rival TTV Dhinakaran, AMMK general secretary, who contested as NDA candidate. While the DMK candidate bagged 5,59,876 votes until 22 rounds of counting, Dhinakaran got 2,85,942 votes and AIADMK 1,52,375 votes.

It’s a cakewalk second stint for Kanimozhi, DMK deputy general secretary in Thoothukudi as she won with 5,37,879 votes in her kitty against AIADMK’s R Sivasamy Velumani, who got 1,47,407 votes. TMC’s SDR Vijayaseelan received 1,21,680 votes. Both her opponents lost their deposits.

Vijayakumar alias Vijay Vasanth (Congress) won Kanniyakumari for the second consecutive term after getting 5,40,267 votes against BJP’s Pon. Radhakrishnan, who got 3,61,623 votes. AIADMK’s Pasilian Nazerath got 40,927 votes.

In Ramanathapuram, K Navaskani (IUML), an ally of DMK emerged victorious for the second consecutive term after getting 4,51,997 votes until 23rd round. While O Panneerselvam, the ousted AIADMK leader, who contested as an independent on jackfruit symbol on behalf of the BJP, earned 3,00,984 votes, AIADMK’s P Jeyaperumal garnered 89,737 votes and finished third in the poll.

It’s the second convincing victory for Karti Chidambaram (Congress), who secured 4,27,677 votes from Sivaganga during 26 rounds of counting. While AIADMK’s A Xavier Dass bagged 2,22,013 votes, BJP’s T Dhevanathan Yadav got 1,95,788 votes.

Rani Sri Kumar of DMK from Tenkasi (Reserved) won after getting 4,22,425 votes against her nearest rival K Krishnasamy (AIADMK), who got 2,27,892 votes in 25 rounds. BJP’s B John Pandian received 2,06,522 votes.