COIMBATORE: With the ‘Vijay wave’ sweeping across the state in the just-concluded Assembly election, the three-cornered fight between TVK, DMK and AIADMK was so intense that the victory margin of many candidates was less that 1,000 votes in 15 constituencies, and between 1,000 and 2,000 in another 12 segments.
DMK’s Minister for Cooperation KR Periyakaruppan, who had been on a winning streak at Tiruppattur since his debut in 2006, was in for a rude shock when he was defeated by an unprecedented ‘one’ vote by TVK’s R Seenivasa Sethupathy.
AIADMK deputy general secretary KP Munusamy (74,553 votes), who won last time by just over 3,000 votes, was defeated by DMK’s PS Srinivasan (74,691) by a margin of 138 votes in Veppanahalli. TVK, which was pushed to third place here, had polled close to 64,000 votes.
Another AIADMK former minister, N Thalavai Sundaram, who won by a margin of 16,213 votes last time, had to fight till the last round against DMK’s R Mahesh in Kanniyakumari. In the end, he won by a margin of 214 votes, amidst opposition by Mahesh about 823 postal votes being declared invalid.
In Polur constituency as well, the fight between TVK, DMDK and PMK was vigorous, with all three parties securing over 60,000 votes. In the end, TVK candidate R Abishek defeated DMDK’s P Saravanan by a margin of 227 votes.
Viluppuram DMK strongman K Ponmudy’s son Pon Gautham Sigamani, despite securing 62,452 votes in Tirukkoyilur, was pushed to third place. Here, AIADMK’s S Palanisamy (73,033) defeated TVK’s Vijay R Baranibalaaji (72,748) by a margin of 285 votes.
Out of these 27 seats where the victory margin was less than 2,000 votes, 9 were won by TVK, 6 by DMK and AIADMK, and one each by Congress, PMK, BJP, VCK, AMMK and IUML.
Overall vote percentage polled by political parties also indicates a tough fight. In a post on X, outgoing Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin said the party that won additional constituencies has gained only 17.43 lakh more votes than us (DMK) and that the difference in percentage of votes those parties and DMK is just 3.52%.
Contesting in 233 assembly seats, TVK managed to bag 34.92 % of the total votes polled in the state. The DMK, which contested in 172 seats and won 59, managed to poll 24.19 %. After adding the combined vote share of DMK allies (Congress 3.37%, DMDK 1.2%, VCK 1.09%, CPI 0.66 %, CPM 0.60% and IUML 0.29%), the figure would goes up to 31.4 %.
The difference of 3.52 % of votes between TVK and DMK bloc in this election is comparatively lesser than the 2021 vote difference between SPA and NDA alliance, which was 5.67 %.
The AIADMK, which contested in 172 seats, managed to win 47, registering a vote share of 21.21 %. The BJP, which won in Udagamandalam out of the 33 seats it contested, managed to get 2.97% of votes.
Seats won with a margin of less than 500 this election
Tiruppattur: R Seenivasa Sethupathy (TVK) defeated K R Periyakaruppan (DMK) by a margin of one vote
Veppanahalli: P S Srinivasan (DMK) defeated K P Munusamy (AIADMK) by a margin of 138 votes
Kanniyakumari: N Thalavai Sundaram (AIADMK) defeated R Mahesh (DMK) by a margin of 214 votes
Polur: R Abishek (TVK) defeated P Saravanan (DMDK) by a margin of 227 votes
Tirukkoyilur: S Palanisamy (AIADMK) defeated Vijay R Baranibalaaji (TVK) by a margin of 285 votes
Paramathi-Velur: S Sekar (AIADMK) defeated K S Moorthy (DMK) by a margin of 308 votes