Karunanidhi clocks highest victory margin

Chennai, May 19: DMK President M Karunanidhi's election to the Tamil Nadu assembly for the 13th time today turned out to be a special one with the 93-year old leader clocking the highest victory margin of 68,366.

On the other extreme, the dubious honour of securing the lowest margin of defeat also went to the DMK with its candidate M Appavu losing by just 49 votes in Radhapuram. Besides, a total of 13 candidates of AIADMK and DMK won by slender three digit margins varying from 304 votes to 982.

Karunanidhi, who contested for the fourth time from his native Tiruvarur, defeated AIADMK candidate R Pannerselvam by a margin of 68,366 votes. He polled a whopping 1,21,473 votes while Pannerselvam secured just 53,107 votes.

The DMK also walked away with the second highest victory margin with its nominee Sakkarapani defeating Kittusamy K (AIADMK) by 65,727 votes in Oddanchatram. Sakkarapani bagged 1,21,715 votes while Kittusamy secured 55,988 votes.

AIADMK S P Velumani defeated Kovai Syed alias Syed Mohammed of MMK by a margin of 64,041 votes in Thondamuthur. Velumani polled 1,09,519 votes while Syed 45,478 votes. Appavu lost to I S Inbadurai of AIADMK by a margin of 49 votes.

Inbadurai secured 69,590 votes while Appavu 69,541 votes. In fact, Appavu briefly held a picketing near the election office and refused to sign the result papers, alleging foul play in declaring the AIADMK candidate the victor. Another prominent candidate who lost the poll by narrow margin is VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, who secured 48,363 votes against AIADMK's Murugumaran N (48,450 votes). The VCK leader lost by 87 votes.

PTI