Kamal Ghorui
CHENNAI: Actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam missed the majority mark of 118 by just 10 seats. A closer look at the results show that in at least a dozen constituencies, TVK lost by margins so small that a minor swing could have changed the outcome. In one seat, the defeat margin was under 300 votes. In several others, it was below 1,000. Overall, in 12 constituencies, TVK candidates lost by a margin of less than 2,000 votes.This stood in stark contrast to the party’s dominant performance in seven other constituencies, where it secured victory margins ranging between 60,000 and 90,000 votes. Another 27 candidates won by margins of 25,000 to 60,000.
Among the segments where TVK lost by slender margins, Villupuram’s Thirukkoyilur stands out. Here TVK’s Vijay R Baranibalaji lost to AIADMK’s S Palanisamy by a mere 285 votes.
The race for the Tirupathur constituency in Sivaganga district provided the election’s most dramatic photo finish. TVK’s R Seenivasa Sethupathy defeated sitting minister K R Periyakaruppan by a single vote — the narrowest possible margin.If the lowest margin was one vote, the highest for TVK came from Sholinganallur where the candidate won with a margin of 96,780 votes.The highest winning margin in the state was garnered by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami. He got 1.48 lakh votes and won by a margin of 98,110 in Edappadi constituency in Salem district, where TVK-backed independent candidate Premkumar finished a distant second with 50,823 votes.“If the TVK candidate’s nomination was not rejected, Palaniswami would have faced a much tougher fight,” said a senior AIADMK leader.In all, TVK defeated AIADMK candidates in 25 constituencies and snatched 51 seats from DMK. Nearly 40 of these victories against DMK came from northern districts, including 14 seats in Chennai, long considered aDMK fortress. Victory margins for the party ranged from a few hundreds to more than 50,000.
Poll
What do you think contributed most to TVK’s strong performance in certain regions?
In direct face-offs between the two Dravidian majors across 122 constituencies, DMK won 18 seats against AIADMK with margins of 6,000 to 23,000 votes. On the other hand, AIADMK outperformed its arch-rival in 21 seats, with margins ranging between 9,000 and 41,000 votes.
