TVK upsets Dravidian majors in Trichy

Trichy: Trichy, which patronised DMK and AIADMK equally in the assembly elections so far, has decisively voted for TVK this time, with the new party's candidates winning six out of nine assembly segments in the district. The big upset came in Thiruverumbur with Navalpattu Viji defeating school education minister and sitting MLA Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi. The other minister, K N Nehru, scraped through in Trichy West, after trailing behind the TVK candidate in the first 10 rounds of counting.In 2021, Trichy elected DMK candidates in all nine assembly segments. However, the party dropped four of its incumbent MLAs, namely M Palaniyandi in Srirangam, Kaduvetti Thiyagarajan in Musiri, A Soundara Pandian in Lalgudi and Stalin Kumar in Thuraiyur (SC); the reserved seat was ceded to Congress in the DMK alliance. DMK has lost all these four segments; to TVK in Musiri, Thuraiyur and Srirangam, and to AIADMK's Leema Rose Martin in Lalgudi. TVK's M Vignesh (17,442 margin of votes), Ramesh (33,590 margin) and M Ravisankar (9,614 margin) won Musiri, Srirangam and Thuraiyur constituencies respectively. DMK's incumbent MLA from Manachanallur, S Kathiravan, was reelected, as he defeated V Saravanan of TVK by 12,364 votes. Minister K N Nehru won Trichy West after a tough fight with TVK's G Ramamoorthi, winning by 4,786 votes. School education minister Anbil Mahesh lost to TVK's Navalpattu Viji by 8,705 votes. In Manapparai, TVK's R Kathiravan won by a margin of 1,426 votes; AIADMK's Dr P L Vijayakumar came second. TVK chief Vijay bagged Trichy East by 27,416 votes, defeating DMK's Inigo Irudayaraj. Candidature of TVK leader in Trichy has made an impact in adjoining Thiruverumbur and Srirangam segments, and to an extent in Trichy West.In Pudukottai district, DMK won three of six assembly segments. Of these, TVK secured two and AIADMK one. As part of the seat-sharing arrangement, BJP was allotted three seats but it failed to make any inroads. In Gandarvakottai (reserved), TVK's N Subramanian defeatedg BJP's C Uthayakumar and CPM's Chinnadurai. In Aranthangi, TVK candidate Mohamed Farvas J won with 73,244 votes, registering a victory margin of 10,062 votes. In Thirumayam, DMK's S Regupathy retained the seat for the third consecutive time in a closely contested race, by a margin of 1,492 votes. In Alangudi, DMK's Siva V Meyyanathan also won for the third time, securing 64,929 votes with a comfortable margin of 12,977 votes. In Viralimalai, AIADMK's C Vijayabaskar won for the fourth time, by a margin of 62,073.