THENI: Former CM O Panneerselvam, who joined the DMK recently, won the elections for the fourth consecutive time. He defeated TVK candidate S Prakash in Bodinayakanur constituency by a margin of 6,805 votes.
Panneerselvam secured 85,206 votes, while Prakash got 78,401 votes, and AIADMK’s VT Narayanasamy came third with 41,286 votes.
From the first round of counting, though his margin fluctuated in the early stages, OPS maintained a slender lead. By the sixth and seventh rounds, he was leading by 1,927 votes, which narrowed to 1,010 in the eight round and further dropped to just 173 votes. However, from the 10th round onwards, he managed to widen his lead by securing considerable votes.
Compared to his performance in the previous Assembly elections, Panneerselvam secured far fewer votes this time. In 2021, he secured 1,00,050 as an AIADMK candidate and won by a margin of 11,021 votes, defeating DMK’s Thanga Tamilselvan. In 2016, he garnered 99,531 votes and defeated S Lakshmanan (DMK) by a margin of 15,608 votes. In 2011, he got 95,329 votes while Lakshmanan polled 65,329.