In a nail-biting finish, DMK’s DM Kathir Anand on Friday won the Vellore Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival, AC Shanmugam of Puthiya Needhi Katchi, contesting on AIADMK symbol, by a margin of 8,141 votes.

The result came as a setback to the AIADMK which was hoping to retain the seat and prove a point after it faced a near rout in the Lok Sabha election with the DMK-led alliance winning 37 of the 38 constituencies.

The DMK candidate, son of the party Treasurer Duraimurugan, bagged 4,85,340 votes and garnered a 47.3 per cent vote share wresting the Vellore seat from arch rival AIADMK, which had won it in 2014.

Shanmugam of Puthiya Needhi Katchi, who contested on the AIADMK’s two-leaves symbol, polled 4,77,199 votes and got 46.51 per cent share, the Election Commission announced. Thanking the voters, DMK chief MK Stalin said the victory was ‘exceptional and unparallelled’.

Since the election was like a by-poll, trouncing a ruling party candidate meant a ‘huge victory’, he told reporters.

DMK, 3rd largest in LS

Also, the victory has cemented DMK’s position as the third largest party in the Lok Sabha, he said adding DMK’s win could only be‘delayed’ but not ‘prevented’.

He was apparently referring to the earlier cancellation of the election in Vellore in April when the rest of the 38 seats in Tamil Nadu went for polls.

Why polls got cancelled?

The EC had then cancelled the poll in Vellore following seizure of large amounts of cash.

With this win, the DMK’s tally in the Lok Sabha has now gone up to 24 and that of the alliance led by it to 38.

 

According to the provisional data provided by the EC, the AIADMK polled more votes in Anaicut, KV Kuppam and Gudiyattam Assembly segments while the DMK was ahead in Vellore, Vaniyambadi and Ambur, which have a sizable Muslim population.

 

In the polling held on August 5, a polling percentage of 71.51 was recorded in the constituency which has 14.32 lakh voters.

 

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