Vijay wins Trichy East comfortably

Trichy: TVK leader Vijay comfortably bagged his second seat, Trichy East, by defeating his nearest rival, DMK's incumbent MLA Inigo Irudayaraj, by a margin of 27,416 votes. Vijay secured 91,381 votes, Inigo Irudayaraj got 63,965 votes, and AIADMK's G Rajasekaran polled 19,715 votes. It is after 15 years that a constituency in Trichy has become a CM's constituency, the last time being in 2011 when AIADMK's J Jayalalithaa won from Srirangam.DMK sources said the party anticipated a close fight between the TVK leader and Irudayaraj, who won the same seat by a margin of 53,797 votes, defeating ex-AIADMK minister Vellamandi Natarajan in 2021. "To our knowledge, minority votes did not go much to TVK, but those in low-income group areas seem to have heavily rallied behind Vijay. Areas like Dharmanathapuram in Ward 32 of Trichy corporation have decisively voted for TVK," a DMK counting agent in Trichy East said. AIADMK, which received 40,505 votes in 2021 despite anti-incumbency, was reduced to 19,715 votes now, forfeiting its deposit. Some of the core voters of both DMK and AIADMK, besides the young and first-generation voters, shifted their allegiance to the TVK leader. While Inigo Irudayaraj won Trichy East in 2021 by securing 54.5% of votes polled, his vote share declined to 35% this time. AIADMK's vote share declined comparatively less, from 23.4% in 2021 to 10.8%. "We believe Vijay will retain Trichy East and resign Perambur as TVK has already proven its presence in Chennai region," R Prem, a resident of KK Nagar, said.