MADURAI: The southern districts were once considered a bastion of the AIADMK. However, ostensibly due to the TTV Dhinakaran factor, the party had hedged its bets and given more of its seats in the region to its allies, choosing to focus on the west instead.
On Thursday, the region stood out as recording the sole victory for ruling party in the Lok Sabha as deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam’s son Raveendranath Kumar romped home to a comfortable win in Theni.
He defeated Congressman EVKS Elangovan and the AMMK strongman Thanga Tamilselvan. Indeed, the AMMK saw its best performances in some of the southern districts but did not come close to winning a single seat, with even Tamilselvan, its best hope, managing only 11 per cent of polled votes.
The AIADMK’s allies did not fare well in the region either. In Sivaganga, where the BJP and Congress faced off, former union minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti managed a thumping victory against BJP national secretary H Raja. In a contest between two unpopular leaders, Karti triumphed despite his legal troubles, winning by over 2.5 lakh votes.
Meanwhile, in her first direct electoral contest DMK’s Kanimozhi, who was acquitted in the 2G spectrum case in 2017, easily defeated BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan by over 3 lakh votes in Thoothukudi, where 14 people had been killed in police firing on anti-Sterlite protesters last May.
In Kanniyakumari, the BJP’s only sitting MP Pon Radhakrishnan was defeated by Congress leader H Vasanthakumar by over 2.5 lakh votes. Vasanthakumar, Tamilisai’s uncle, is the sitting MLA from Nanguneri. His victory in the Lok Sabha seat will thereby necessitate another bypoll.
In Dindigul, the DMK candidate P Veluchamy left candidates from other parties losing their deposits, while the BJP’s Nainar Nagenthran lost to DMK ally IUML’s K Navaskani in Ramanathapuram. In Tenkasi, the only reserved seat in the region, Puthiya Tamilagam chief Dr Krishnasamy lost to the DMK candidate, his sixth defeat in this constituency.