Amidst sweep, few under-dogs taste success in west TN

Coimbatore: Even as the AIADMK achieved a near close sweep in the Western region, which tilted the scales of victory in their favour, a few candidates from the DMK-Congress alliance managed to swim against the tide. Several factors contributed to their wins, including their popularity in the constituency. Dominant communities also voted along caste lines which helped the under-dogs win.
While N Karthik from DMK managed to win his seat into the state assembly from the Singanallur constituency, with a comfortable margin of 5,180 votes, R Ganesh from the Congress won at Udhagamandalam by a margin of 10,419 votes and M Thiravidamani of DMK managed to win by 13,379 votes in Gudalur.
DMK veterans say N Karthik's popularity during his stint as deputy mayor between 2006 and 2011 and his approachability made him a sure shot winner. "Karthik has worked hard for his ward and the Singanallur area in general," said former DMK state minister, Pongalur Palanisamy. "He is also very approachable and on several occasions has been at the scene during any kind of crisis. On the other hand, no one even knows Singai Muthu," he said.
In the Nilgiris, two of three seats were grabbed by the DMK-Congress alliance. Historically, the hill station is known to vote against the Western region's mandate. However, this year, the candidate's personalities seems to have made them naturally attractive to the voters. "This is Thiravidamani's second consecutive victory because he is a people's MLA. He is always approachable and takes up any issue that people approach him with. If the matter is not in his hands, he takes it to he chief minister and even the Prime Minister. He even organizes agitations and protests along with the people," said a Nilgiris resident, Hussain Sait .
In Udhagamandalam, which had always been a Congress-stronghold, the badaga community played a major role. Though the Congress and AIADMK both fielded badaga candidates, the community decided to throw their weight behind Ganesh.
"He is very popular in his community," said state executive member TNCC, J B Subramaniam.