CHENNAI: The DMK has decimated the opposition, with rival candidates in constituencies such as Harbour, Saidapet and Kolathur losing their deposits.
In ward 70 at Kolathur, chief minister M K Stalin’s assembly constituency, DMK’s Sreethani won by 8,100 votes, while Parithi Elamsuruthi, a former DMK minister’s son, won by of 6,000 votes and Dhanasekaran won ward 137 (Virugambakkam) by 11,000 votes when the total votes polled were 26,464.
There were some close battles as well. In wards 181, 158 and 30, DMK candidates won by 700 votes, 90 votes and by 532 votes. The opposition AIADMK also had close battles in its 15 wins including in ward 17 where it won by less than 100 votes. In ward 84, the AIADMK candidate won by 80 votes.
Top DMK leaders attributed the rout to the schemes brought in by the chief minister over the past 10 months and to its well-organized campaign. Party spokesman Saravanan Annadurai said women voters too played an important role in the win. “In most schemes, they were the beneficiaries and analysis shows their votes helped us improve victory margins. ”
Activists say the lacklustre campaign by the AIADMK, whose MLAs didn’t campaign at all in some wards, was also a reason. They were hardly present in the last six years during which the city struggled through natural disasters including floods and cyclones. In contrast, the DMK’s star candidates were always accessible to people, said health minister and DMK district secretary Ma Subramanian.
Singai Ramachandran, AIADMK’s state IT wing secretary, said the loss didn’t mean the party had been wiped out. “In this election, there was a lot of money power that was used and when we complained about it, we were arrested. The leadership is strong and losses don’t have anything to do with not allying with BJP. In fact, figures show that whenever we have allied with them, our victory margins have reduced. ”
