TVK bags 8/10 in Madurai as ‘giants’ bite the dust

Madurai: Keeping up with the statewide trend, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam juggernaut made inroads in Madurai district by bagging eight of its 10 assembly constituencies while Congress and DMK shared the remaining two. Those who bit the dust were the district's prominent DMK ministers P Moorthy in Madurai East and P T R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan in Madurai Central. DMK and AIADMK had won five seats each in the 2021 assembly election.In Madurai East, P Moorthy, who had won in the past two elections, managed to hold on to a lead for the first seven rounds against TVK's S Karthikeyan, but by round eight, the tables turned, and the latter romped home by 16,547 votes. In Madurai Central, IT & digital services minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, who won in 2016 and 2021, conceded lead from the first round to TVK's Madurai Madhar Badhurudeen, eventually losing by 19,128 votes. AIADMK alliance's Puthiya Neethi Katchi candidate, actor-director Sundar C, secured the third place with 33,538 votes.As for the AIADMK, its three heavyweights, R B Udhayakumar, Sellur K Raju and VV Rajan Chellappa too lost their seats in the district. Sellur K Raju, who won from Madurai West in the past three elections, came third behind TVK's S R Thangapandi and DMK's R Balaji from the first round. R Balaji managed to lead in the first round, but TVK led after that. Thangapandi won by 11,931 votes.In Thirumangalam, R B Udhayakumar, who was deputy leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly and had won the past two elections there, lost to DMK's M Manimaran by 23,807 votes. In Thiruparankundram, incumbent AIADMK MLA V V Rajan Chellappa came third behind TVK's C T R Nirmalkumar and DMK candidate Kiruthiga Thangapandi. Nirmalkumar won by a margin of 41,553 votes .In Sholavandan, TVK candidate M V Karuppiah secured 63,907 votes and won by a margin of 2,678 against incumbent DMK MLA A Venkatesan who secured 61,229 votes. AIADMK candidate K Manickam came third with 49,494 votes. In Madurai North, TVK's A Kallanai secured 72,853 votes and won by a margin of 18,038 against DMK's sitting MLA G Thalapathi while AIADMK's P Saravanan came third.In Madurai South, TVK's M M Gopison secured 62,415 votes and trounced MDMK's sitting MLA M Boominathan by 21,529 votes. BJP candidate Raama Sreenivasan was pushed to third place with 31,100 votes.In Usilampatti, TVK candidate M Vijay defeated incumbent AIADMK MLA I Mahendran by 1,805 votes while Congress candidate T Saravanakumar secured third place. In Melur, Congress candidate P Viswanathan won by a margin of 2,724 votes against TVK's A Maduraiveeran, pushing incumbent AIADMK MLA P Periyapullan to third. In the 2021 election, DMK won in Madurai East, Sholavandan, Madurai North, Madurai South and Madurai Central whereas AIADMK won in Melur, Madurai West, Thirumangalam, Thiruparankundram and Usilampatti.