THENI: DMK’s Thanga Tamilselvan defeated AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran in the Theni constituency by a margin of 2,78,825 votes, garnering 5,71,493 votes. AIADMK’s VT Narayanasamy came third with 1,55,587 votes followed by NTK’s Madhan with 76,834.
Significantly, Tamilselvan had contested from here in 2019 as an AMMK candidate, losing to AIADMK’s P Ravindranath Kumar, son of ousted AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam.
Tamilselvan, a three-time MLA from the Andipatti Assembly segment, which falls under the Theni seat, joined the DMK in 2019 and is currently the party’s Theni North secretary. Top DMK leaders, including CM MK Stalin and Sports Minister Udhayanidhi, campaigned for him as this was the lone seat the DMK bloc had lost in 2019. The party lost to AIADMK here in 1998 and 1999, winning here while in alliance with Congress in 2004 and 2009 and in 2014 after the alliance had ended.
Counting was not without incident. At the end of the first round, Assistant Returning Officer for Usilampatti constituency delayed the commencement of the second round as he “did not receive order from Returning Officer RV Shajeevana.” This led to a scuffle between agents and the ARO and police had to pacify them.