Thursday’s results of the Lok Sabha Elections from Tamil Nadu sprung a few surprises, with political giants being defeated in the poll battle. While constituencies like Chidambaram witnessed a tight contest, in others the poll margins were massive, with the results delivering some shocking blows. TNM looks at the biggest poll defeats from Tamil Nadu in 2019.
M Thambidurai (Karur)
Five-time MP and Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha M Thambidurai suffered a humiliating defeat to Congress’ S Jothimani. He lost by a whopping margin of over 4.2 lakh votes from Karur constituency. The AIADMK veteran polled 2,75,151 votes while Jothimani polled 6,95,697 votes.
By defeating the Thambidurai, Jothimani emerged as one of the biggest giant slayers this election, as the AIADMK leader was seeking re-election from Karur for a third consecutive time. He was the MP from the constituency in 2009 and 2014.
For Jothimani, the Congresswoman who contested on behalf of the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu, this was her second outing in the Parliamentary polls. She had unsuccessfully contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Karur, losing to Thambidurai.
Anbumani Ramadoss (Dharmapuri)
In a big blow to the PMK, its lone MP and former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss was defeated by DMK’s DNV Senthilkumar in Dharmapuri. Anbumani Ramadoss, who had hoped to ride on the Vanniyar votebank, lost by a margin of over 70,000 votes, with Senthilkumar picking over 5.74 lakh votes.
Dharmapuri witnessed a tri-cornered contest this election season. Sitting MP Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK sought a re-election, and was the candidate for the AIADMK-led alliance. Senthilkumar is the grandson of former MLA GA Vadivelu, who was a freedom fighter and played a major role in making Dharmapuri a separate district. AMMK’s Palaniappan came third in Dharmapuri.
Pon Radhakrishnan (Kanniyakumari)
For the BJP, that had hoped to see the lotus bloom in some parts of the state, suffered a big setback in Tamil Nadu. Kanniyakumari, which in 2014 had given the BJP its lone MP in the state, saw the Congress’ H Vasanthakumar defeat Union Minister of State Pon Radhakrishnan by a massive margin of 2.59 lakh votes.
Businessman and Congress candidate H Vasanthakumar heaped himself a lion’s share of 59.83% votes in the constituency. While H Vasanthakumar’s total votes stood at 6,27,235, BJP’s Pon Radhakrishnan managed to receive close to half of it with 3,67,302 votes amounting to 35.04% vote share.
Vasanthakumar, the founder chairman of Vasantha and Co, is also MLA from Nanguneri Assembly constituency. His victory in the Parliamentary Elections means, Vasanthakumar will have to give up his MLA seat, necessitating bye-elections to the constituency.
Source: The News Minute