The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : AIADMK retains two seats

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 12, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Others

AIADMK retains two seats

R. Rajaram

After a long gap of 35 years, the DMK wins Aranthangi

PUDUKOTTAI: It was a split verdict in Pudukottai district where the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its allies - Congress and the Communist Party of India - bagged three seats, while the AIADMK retained two segments out of the total five constituencies.

After a long gap of 35 years, the DMK won the Aranthangi seat with its candidate Udayam Shanmugam defeating AIADMK's E. Karthikeyan by 17,460 votes.

Right from the beginning, Udayam Shanmugam maintained a lead over the AIADMK candidate, which increased gradually in the successive rounds. At the end, Udayam Shanmugam polled 63,333 votes, while Karthikeyan secured 45,873 votes. The BJP candidate Kuzha. Kathamuthu, a close aide of the party MP and former AIADMK minister S. Thirunavukkarasar who won from the seat a record six times consecutively from 1977, came fourth securing 14,713 votes. In a closely fought contest, the Congress bagged the Tirumayam constituency beating the AIADMK, which had won the seat in the 2001 elections.

The Congress nominee, RM. Subburam defeated the sitting AIADMK MLA and the Fisheries Minister M. Radhakrishnan by a narrow margin of 314 votes.

It was a neck and neck battle, though at the end Subburam polled 47,358 votes including 437 postal votes, while Radhakrishnan got 47,044 votes. Subburam who was trailing behind Radhakrishnan till the 21st round, however, made it by getting more postal votes than his rival. The former AIADMK minister and the founder of the Tamizhar Boomi K.P. Krishnan contesting on BJP symbol obtained 10,490 votes.

S. Rajasekaran (CPI) avenged his defeat by beating his rival A. Venkatachalam of the AIADMK in the Alangudi assembly constituency.

The CPI candidate who lost to Venkatachalam in the 1996 elections, secured a handsome victory this time polling 60,122 votes. Venkatachalam who secured 50,971 votes was defeated by a margin of 9,151 votes. The AIADMK candidate had won twice consecutively from here (once in 1996 as an independent candidate and again in 2001 as AIADMK candidate). Selvinraj (DMDK) polled 16,739 votes. Significantly, the former AIADMK MP Raja Paramasivam, contesting as an independent candidate, who was expelled from the party recently obtained 14,939 votes.

The AIADMK retained the Kolathur (Reserved) and Pudukottai assembly segments.

The party's nominee for Kolathur N. Subramanian defeated his nearest rival C. Paranjothi of the DMK by a margin of 6,268 votes.

While Subramanian secured 68,735 votes, the DMK candidate obtained 62,467 votes.

In Pudukottai, R. Nedunchezhian (AIADMK) defeated Jaffer Ali (DMK) by 1,950 votes.

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