KARUR: Karur constituency having had the highest number of candidates in the electoral fray and also recording the highest voter turnout on April could perhaps explain enough the significance attached to it in the Assembly elections, and more so on the winner. And the vote counting results out in the wee hours of Monday threw the spotlight on DMK's Senthil Balaji who was declared winner with a margin of over 12,000 votes over his arch rival MR Vijayabaskar.
After a delayed counting process that was taken up on Sunday morning, the winner of the Karur Assembly segment was declared around 2.30 am on Monday. Senthil Balaji won comfortably by a huge margin of 12,448 votes. At the end of 18 rounds of counting, he secured a total of 1,01,757 votes (49.08%), including 1,401 postal votes. On the other hand, his counterpart MR Vijayabaskar of the AIADMK managed to get a total of 89,309 votes (43.08%), including 869 postal votes. Assembly segment's Returning Officer Balasubramanian provided the winning election certificate to Balaji.
With this, Senthil Balaji has managed to keep his winning streak alive. The five-time winner is yet to lose an election. Winning the Karur constituency for the third time, Senthil Balaji regained his base after a gap of five years. Balaji was the Karur MLA from 2006 to 2016, after which he was moved to Aravakurichi constituency in the 2016 elections.
With his win, the DMK has recaptured the Karur segment after a gap of 25 years, as the last party candidate elected in the Karur constituency was way back in the 1996 Assembly elections. Former district secretary Vasuki Murugesan was the last DMK leader to win in Karur.
Apart from the Karur constituency, Senthil Balaji, who is the DMK's district in-charge, is likely to be promoted as the party's Karur district secretary after securing his party a win in all the four assembly constituencies, including Aravakurichi, Krishnarayapuram (SC) and Kulithalai. Also, Senthil Balaji who was the former transport minister earlier will probably be assigned with the same ministry by the party head, said sources.