Coimbatore: Though the DMK has lost the western region to AIADMK and its allies in the 2021 state assembly election, it has managed to narrow down the margin of victory in some constituencies when compared with the 2016 assembly election results.
Of the 10 constituencies in the district, the DMK has lost to AIADMK with a margin of a few thousand votes in three to four segments.
While DMK lost with the lowest margin of 1,095 votes in the Kinathukadavu assembly segment in this election, it has lost with the highest margin of 41,630 votes in the Thondamuthur assembly constituency.
In the Kinathukadavu assembly election, AIADMK candidate and former minister S Damodaran secured 1,01,537 votes and his opponent Kurichi Prabhakaran from DMK polled 1,00,442 votes. The victory margin is 1,095 votes. In 2016, AIADMK candidate A Shanmugam secured 89,042 votes and defeated DMK candidate Prabhakaran by just 1,332 votes only.
Coimbatore: AIADMK won big in Coimbatore, bagging nine out of the 10 assembly constituencies in the district.
Party strongman S P Velumani registered an impressive victory against his principal opponent DMK’s Karthikeya Sivasenapathy. Despite Sivasenapathy posing a tough challenge, Velumani secured 1,23,538 votes, which was 41,709 votes more than the runner-up. Sivasenapathy polled 81,829 votes.
In Valparai, one of the first constituencies where results were declared, AIADMK candidate T K Amul Kandasami defeated his rival DMK candidate by scoring 70,957 votes. Valparai, along with constituencies like Kavundampalayam, were surprise wins for AIADMK as several predictions had suggested that the segments were favourable for DMK.
Earlier it was being said that Kamal Haasan will contest from Alandur, Chennai.
Chennai:
Kamal Haasan, veteran Tamil movie actor and founder of the fledgeling Makkal Needhi Maiam, will be contesting the upcoming state Assembly polls from the Coimbatore South constituency. He made the announcement today while releasing his party s second list of candidates. Grapevine had it earlier that he may choose to fight from Alandur in Chennai, a seat that former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran held for nine years.
The past two Assembly polls saw the Coimbatore South seat being won by the AIADMK, with the Amman K Arjunan being the current incumbent. Under a new seat-sharing deal, however, the ruling party passed the seat to its ally, the BJP, giving much heartburn to AIADMK cadres. In the 2019 general election, MNM gathered 11 per cent votes in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency.