VELLORE: Unlike the huge victory margin of DMK and its allies at the polls in April, the party candidate DM Kathir Anand posted victory in Vellore Lok Sabha constituency with low margin.
As per the final results, he secured 4,85,340 votes defeating his nearest rival AC Shanmugam of AIADMK by a margin of 8,141 votes. Shanmugam, the founder of Puthiya Neethi Katchi, who contested on AIADMK symbol, ended up with 4,77,199 votes.
On August 5, as many as 10,24, 352 votes were polled in Vellore against a total voter strength of 14,32,555.
The victory in Vellore constituency has increased the tally of DMK and its alliance in Lok Sabha to 39. In Puducherri too, DMK alliance won in April elections.
Kathir Anand, speaking to reporters, said, “The victory is the dividend to party president MK Stalin’s hard work.”
He added that the victory is being dedicated to late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi whose first death anniversary was observed on August 7.
The AIADMK men were upbeat in the initial rounds as Shanmugam established early leads and continued till sixth round before the trailing Kathir Anand made a comeback.
Since then, he was surging ahead piling up the margin though shrinking over the final rounds of counting but enough to ensure him victory.
The elections to the Fort City was deferred by the Election Commission of India (ECI) as it found the situation in April not conducive for free and fair polls following cash haul from men linked to DMK Treasurer Durai Murugan and his son Kathir Anand.
The battle to win Vellore became prestigious for both AIADMK and DMK.
The former wanted to stop the unstoppable run of the DMK juggernaut as the alliance headed by the party won 37 seats in Tamil Nadu in April.
The entire Tamil Nadu Cabinet descended on Vellore micromanaging the campaign for its ally AC Shanmugam.
The party claimed the situation has changed largely from what prevailed in April.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami went to the extent of describing DMK’s massive as ‘lured by giving sweet candies to voters’, and it could not continue to deceive the people.
For DMK, the battle was to mop up and capture the final frontier. During electioneering, the party leaders paid much attention to the minority support base.
Now, the DMK alliance’ tally has gone up to 38 in Tamil Nadu, the lone constituency AIADMK won in April is Theni where OP Ravindranath Kumar, son of Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
It may be noted that this is the second consecutive defeat for Shanmugam. In 2014, he contested on BJP symbol as part of BJP,DMDK and PMK alliance and secured 3,24,326 votes ending up as runner up.