‘Outsiders’ win 5 of 9 seats in Trichy district

Trichy: Five out of nine MLAs elected from nine assembly constituencies in Trichy district are ‘outsiders', candidates who did not have their votes in the assembly constituency they won. While Trichy East MLA, TVK leader, Joseph Vijay resides in Neelankarai, Chennai, AIADMK's Leema Rose Martin elected from Lalgudi is a resident of GN Mills in Coimbatore. S Ramesh, 31-year-old from Maraimalai Nagar in Chengalpattu district, secured victory in the Srirangam constituency by garnering 1,03,235 votes and with a margin of 33,590 votes. Similarly, M Ravisankar of TVK, a resident of Thiruvellarai in Manachanallur, has won Thuraiyur (reserved) assembly segment by a margin of 9,614 votes. TVK's M Vignesh, a resident of Angarai in Lalgudi, contesting in Musiri had won the segment by a margin of 17,442 votes. "Public during our campaigns did not ask any questions about the native places of our candidates. Familiar faces with good chances of victory were given the opportunity. Our candidates capitalized it even in rural constituencies such as Musiri and Thuraiyur," S Karthikeyan, a TVK counting agent, said.In Srirangam, Musiri, Thuraiyur and Lalgudi constituencies, TVK candidates prevailed over familiar and local DMK and AIADMK candidates, pushing them to second and third places. In Thuraiyur, TVK candidate Ravisankar won against AIADMK's candidate E Saroja. Leema Rose, who was often targeted by DMK as an ‘outsider', had pushed DMK's T Parivallal to the third place in Lalgudi. DMK principal secretary K N Nehru in Trichy West, DMK's sitting MLA from Manachanallur S Kathiravan, TVK's Thiruverumbur candidate Navalpattu Viji, and Manapparai candidate R Kathiravan were among local candidates who won the elections.